Introducing the heritage-inspired Royal Enfield Interceptor 650 and Continental GT 650, with an all new parallel twin engine.
So pick your play. from $9,790 ride away
GLOVES
Protect
DUCATI
Is
Settle
Doing
Riding a motorcycle on today’s highways, you have to ride in a very defensive manner. You have to be a good rider and you have to have both hands and both feet on the controls at all times.
EVEL KNIEVEL
Editor Stuart Woodbury
Contributing Editor J Peter Thoeming
Sales Manager Ralph Leavsey-Moase ralph@ausmotorcyclist.com.au
Photo Editor Nick Wood
Designer Amy Hale
Photographers Nick Wood Photography, Half-Light Photography
Contributors Robert Crick, Jacqui Kennedy, Robert Lovas, Boris Mihailovic, Chris Pickett, The Possum, Colin Whelan, Bob Wozga
Australian Motorcyclist Magazine is published by Australian Motorcyclist Magazine Pty Ltd. Suite 4b, Level 1, 11-13 Orion Rd, Lane Cove West NSW 2066 Phone 0412 220 680.
This publication is copyright. Other than for the purposes of research, study, criticism, review, parody or satire and subject to the conditions prescribed under the Copyright Act 1968, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted without the prior written permission of Australian Motorcyclist Magazine Pty Ltd. Opinions expressed within this publication do not necessarily represent those of Australian Motorcyclist Magazine Pty Ltd. No responsibility is accepted by Australian Motorcyclist Magazine Pty Ltd or the editor for the accuracy of any statement, opinion or advice contained in the text or advertisements. Readers should rely on their own enquiries in making decisions tailored to their own interest.
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EDITORSPEAKS
Everything happens for a reason
I’VE NEVER BEEN a big believer in the wild and woolly sayings of the world. Things like, “it’s fate”, “the grass is greener on the other side” and the big one, “everything happens for a reason”.
I’m sure there are loads more sayings that cover everything that might happen, but when your world turns upside down for whatever reason - whether you had a crash and ended up in hospital, or you get ill, or your personal life turns upside down, I’ve become a believer in two of these – the grass is greener on the other side and everything happens for a reason.
I won’t go into specifi c details but my personal life got turned upside down and while at fi rst I thought, “how could anything ever be good again in my life”, a few weeks later I’ve come out the other side rosier and at this stage far better than before. Hard to believe, but as a friend said to me at the time, “good things happen to good people” and I guess he’s right.
I do also have to apologise to all of you as during this few weeks which resulted in issue #78 coming out I was not thinking straight at all, The Bear was overseas on a trip and didn’t know about what happened, so couldn’t help me with putting the issue together, so if anything in that issue didn’t make sense or wasn’t to our usual standard I sincerely apologise. Now, back to normality! I recently took a friend for their fi rst ever pillion ride. They were extremely nervous and had a good idea I’m a little mad and crazy when I ride a motorcycle, so over coming that fear was a big step for them. LOL! I had promised to ride slowly and make the ride fun for them, but as I always have that cheeky spark in my eyes they weren’t overly convinced until I got a message saying, “let’s go for a ride”. My
friend had worked up the courage to give it a go and after a gentle ride they are hooked. I said, “see, it’s worth giving things in life a go. You’d never know unless you did it”. Finally, Alex raced The Beast at Morgan Park for Round 4 of Australian Superbikes in the Superbike Masters support class. He qualifi ed on pole having never been to Morgan Park before and got second in each of the races, being beaten by a local racer on a lightweight TZ750. Morgan Park is a handful on a big old beast like the FZR, so much in fact that Alex had one of the biggest tank slappers I’ve ever seen. So big it snapped the steering stop bolts clean off! Alex was leading at the time and after leaving some bark in his leathers, rolled off to come in second. Allin-all a great effort, having never been to Morgan Park and trying to tame a wild beast around a tight and technical track.
Roll on the next round of Superbike Masters being held at Sydney Motorsport Park for the fi nal round of ASBK – 1-3 November where Alex can really unleash The Beast! Come and check it out!
Enjoy.
Cheers, Stuart.
GOLD!
The winners of Australia’s peak industry design awards – the highest honour for design and innovation in the country - were announced at The Star in Sydney on 11 July at the 61st annual Good Design Awards Ceremony.
The MotoPressor 4in1 Puncture Repair Tool (by our friends at Rocky Creek Designs) received a prestigious Good Design Award Gold Accolade in the Product Design category in recognition for outstanding design and innovation.
The Good Design Awards Jury praised MotoPressor 4in1 Puncture Repair Tool, commenting: “A compact and highly functional puncture repair tool with an industrial look that goes with the motorcycle aesthetic. The complete package and storage pouch is clever for the amount of tools, making it small enough to fi t in your pocket.”
The Good Design Awards attracted a record number of submissions with close to 700 design projects to be evaluated in this year’s international design awards.
So, what makes the award winning Motopressor Puncture Repair Tool different?
Greg Jansen of Rocky Creek Designs says: “We designed a “4 in 1 multi-
usual distributors.
To see all the wonderful Rocky Creek Design products, jump onto the websitewww.rockycreekdesigns.com.au
WINNER, WINNER. CHICKEN DINNER!
tool” that uses pre-vulcanized repair strings and the whole package stores in a sheath small enough to fit in your pocket. The tool contains a pair of pliers, a rasp, an insertion tool and a knife, including 5 strings.” What’s different about our repair strings? The fact that they are pre-vulcanized, for one thing - so no more little tubes of glue. The “repair string” plugs the hole AND leaves a “patch style” repair on the INSIDE of your tyre.
The whole kit is super portable, easy to use and stores in a sheath measuring a mere 5.11 x 1.5 x 1.2 inches. (12 x 6.5 x 4cm)
The MotoPressor Puncture Repair Tool is available now from Rocky Creek Designs and all good Motorcycle Stores through the
Friend of Australian Motorcyclist, Rennie Scaysbrook has won the world famous Pikes Peak Hillclimb. After coming close to winning over the last couple of years, Rennie finally got it done this year and we’re extremely happy for him. Rennie took on a new bike this year to compete on, the powerful Aprilia Tuono 1100. He clean swept the event, winning the Heavyweight division and the King of The Mountain title, as well as setting a new record time (9.44.963) in the motorcycle category. A fantastic result for Rennie, and as another feather in the cap, he is also the first Australian to achieve this great feat. Top work!
MOTO 2 FOR THE ROAD
Following overwhelmingly positive customer demand, Triumph
Motorcycles confirm the introduction of the ultimate edition of the legendary, multiple Supersport Championship winning Daytona, which will be officially revealed at a special press event at the GoPro British Grand Prix at Silverstone on Friday 23rd August 2019. Triumph will launch two versions of the eagerly-anticipated new Daytona on 23rd August, one for Europe and Asia, and one for the US and Canada. Both will feature a new Moto2TM derived 765cc triple engine inside a championship-winning sports-focused chassis, delivering the highest power and torque ever from a production 765cc, plus the highest specification of equipment ever, and a limited edition race paint scheme. Want one? You better get to your Triumph dealer now and order it!
A GREAT DAY OUT
Australasia’s premier annual exhibition of rare, classic, collectible and signifi cant cars and motorcycles will celebrate its landmark 10th event this year, with dates confi rmed for 11 – 13 October 2019.
Motorclassica will once again be staged at Melbourne’s iconic, world heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building, its home since the inaugural event in 2010. Along with celebrating its own landmark, Motorclassica 2019 will as always host the Australian International Concours d’Elegance, the premier annual awards for rare, exotic and collectible cars and motorcycles, with an anticipated entry of 150 vehicles for 2019 on the polished wooden boards of the Royal Exhibition building.
Outside will be the club-based displays known as Club Sandwich, which will see a further 200 cars and motorcycles on show, alongside 30 exotic modern supercars from Lorbek Luxury Cars.
Signifi cant automotive
milestones to be celebrated at Motorclassica 2019 with extensive displays will include 100 years of the famous Bentley marque and the less well known Alvis, and contrasting with those British brands, a century of the innovative French maker Citroen.
Arguably the most recognisable car in the world, the Mini, will be honoured for its 60 years while, by contrast, so too will Abarth, an Italian tuner feted for its performance modifications to Fiat and Lancia models over the past 70 years.
Increasingly collectible, Japan’s often unheralded role in the global development of the modern sports car will also be recognised at Motorclassica with a specially curated tribute.
On the Motorclassica central stage, a series of special guests and industry experts will entertain, educate and advise show goers on all aspects of the automotive lifestyle.
Upstairs, more than 80 exhibitors will display a wide range of products, services and experiences.
Motorclassica 2019 will kick off with the annual Tour Classica, where a number of show participants will parade through the Melbourne CBD on the morning of Thursday 10 October, before arriving at the Royal Exhibition Building. Motorclassica 2019 will be staged at the Royal Exhibition Building (Melbourne) from 11 – 13 October. Tickets for Motorclassica are on sale now at: www.motorclassica.com.au .
KATANA IS COMING
As you read this we will just have ridden the new Suzuki Katana. For our thoughts on this hotly anticipated new model check out issue #80 of Australian Motorcyclist. You will have read Stuart’s restoration of his original bike, so who better to compare the two bikes! D
When you hear of a model called “Stealth”, would you expect a totally blacked out, dark and mysterious machine? You probably would, but the new Ducati Monster 821 Stealth mixes up that moniker with plenty of ‘bling’to go with the darkness.
When I talk about ‘bling’ I mean the fluro red highlights on the Stealth which really attract some attention. That’s always confirmed at traffic lights when other motorcyclists pull up beside you and start raving to you about how good the Stealth looks. This is great for any potential owner as you do get a heap of added pride for your pride and joy!
What’s new for 2019? Apart from the new graphics there’s a new front fairing, pillion seat cover, adjustable forks and Ducati’s up/down quickshifter, which really makes the Stealth a joy to ride. The settings of the quickshifter also mean you can use it at any speed, not just flat out like some of these things.
Other standard features include the latest ABS Bosch MP control unit, Ducati Traction control with 8 levels, LED position light and tail light, USB power socket, and a TFT colour display with all the info you could ever want.
Agile and featuring sporty performance, it was designed for maximum riding enjoyment at all times and in all conditions. The Monster 821 range has been rejuvenated with this new stealth version: matte black livery, updated graphics and front fairing give a unique character to the naked Ducati par excellence. The new standard equipment, which includes adjustable fork and Ducati Quick Shift up/down, makes it even more effective on the road.
The one outstanding thing I really liked about the Stealth is its easy-going nature. Handling is effortless and turn in light and stable. Coming in at 206kg wet the weight is low and also very manageable for any strength rider. Despite the forks and shock being adjustable I didn’t feel the need to change them for general road riding. If the pace was to be upped a bit then a little bit more rear preload could be called for.
Braking is powerful as expected from the Brembo calipers and there’s lots of feel available, so much in fact that I could relive my youth by doing stoppies comfortably! Under controlled circumstances, of course.
Power from the L-twin is steady and torquey. It is more than enough for most riders and easier to handle than the 1200 Monster – it all depends on what you like at the end of the day. As with all Ducatis, electronics are a major feature. I set up the three power modes differently so I could get a good feel of the interaction at varying levels. Basically I set sport to everything off expect front ABS, Touring around halfway and Urban to full interaction and low power. Urban settings would be good for a returning
or new full licenced rider, otherwise there’s too much interaction for my liking. Touring was good and would be perfect for slippery wet roads and to really unleash the fun only a Monster can give, having traction off and only ABS on the front is a great mix to feel just what the 821 can deliver.
Accessories are extensive as you can imagine from Ducati, you can really bling up the Stealth with things like carbon muffl ers, red coolant hoses, loads more carbon and billet aluminium pieces, a lower or comfort seat and for any travel you can fi t some luggage.
The new Ducati Monster 821 Stealth is simply a bike that you’ll enjoy. It has the looks, it has the go and it has the ease of riding we’re all after in a bike. D
SPECS
DUCATI MONSTER 821 STEALTH
PRICE: $18,590 (ride away)
WARRANTY: Two years, unlimited distance
SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 15,000km or 12 months
ENGINE: Liquid-cooled L-twin cylinder, 4-stroke, Desmodromic, 4 valves per cylinder
BRAKES: Front, twin 320mm discs with radial mount four-piston ABS calipers. Rear, 245mm disc, twin-piston ABS caliper.
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 7.36 litres per 100km, premium unleaded
THEORETICAL RANGE: 224km
COLOURS: Stealth
VERDICT: DARK UNDERNEATH, BUT BRIGHT ON THE OUTSIDE
The Profile-V is a brand-new helmet from Arai. It has a fresh, aggressive style unique in the range and is designed to welcome riders to the Arai family with the plush comfort, protection and features expected of the brand but also something else – easy access on and o . The Arai experience starts here.
ALL YOU NEED IS (G)LOVE(S) GLOVES
And you really do need new ones! COMPILED BY STUART
APART FROM YOUR eyes, one of the most important parts of your body for you to function, and ride a motorcycle, are your hands. Protecting them with high quality motorcycle gloves is just common sense. I’ve seen what happens to hands, fingers and bones when a motorcycle rider hasn’t worn gloves and crashed. It’s not pretty and affects their life forever.
I have always worn the best possible gloves while I’ve been riding a
motorcycle. I’ve crashed and always been thankful I had top quality gloves on when the ground-down leather and plastic protectors showed what would have happened to my hands. Skin normally grows back, but entire hands don’t – have a serious think about that and the consequences if you aren’t wearing gloves. Okay, so it was time we put together the latest offerings from the best distributors in the game. Here is what they want you to have on your hands to keep you safe.
DRIRIDER
www.dririder.com.au
Summit Pro - $149.95
These are the top of the line winter gloves in the Dririder range, made from leather, soft shell and Kordura 500 Denier, featuring Visco Lab impact knuckle protector, Nylon palm protector, McTex waterproof and breathable liner, McFit tri fl eece liner, McFill 6oz back and 2oz palm, accordion stretch panels
for fl exibility, touch screen compatible Smart Tip on forefi nger and thumb, elasticised wrist with dual strap closure and leather reinforcement on palm and side of hand. Available in two colour options and sizes S – 2XL.
Highway - $119.95
These are a mid-price point winter glove made from leather, high tenacity fabric and non-
slip microfi ber, featuring Visco Lab impact knuckle protector, waterproof and breathable liner, comfortable Tri fl eece liner, Thinsulate 6oz insulation back and 4oz on palm,
SPECIAL FEATURE Gloves
Thermoplastic palm slider, accordion stretch panels for fl exibility, elasticised wrist with dual strap closure and touch screen compatible Smart Tip on forefi nger. Available in three colour options and sizes S – 2XL.
Adventure 2$89.95
These are the biggest sellers in the Dririder winter glove range, made from Nylon stretch fabric and cowhide construction featuring Hipora waterproof and breathable membrane, Thinsulate insulated thermal liner, super fabric protection on palm, PU knuckle protectors, reinforced silicone printed Clarino palm to enhance grip, stretch comfort panels, precurved fi ngers, dual adjustable Velcro closures, adjustable Velcro closures at cuff and wrist and a TPR visor wipe. Available in Black and sizes XS – 4XL, Ladies XS – L.
gloves. A combination of goat leather and spandex with RISC polyurethane knuckle and wrist protection provides superb comfort, fi t and feel. Available in Black, Blk/ Grey/Fluro, Blk/Grey/Red and sizes S – 3XL.
Chicane$149.95
These short cuff summer sport gloves are loaded with safety features yet cool to wear. With premium leather construction, carbon knuckle protection, PU palm sliders, stretch sections on the back and fully breathable fi nger panels plus mobile phone friendly “touch tip” in the fi nger tips. Available in Black and sizes XS – 3XL.
knuckle, fi nger, palm and cuff protection. The Track R gloves are uncompromising in design providing the highest level of dexterity and protection. As worn by Troy Bayliss and some of the world’s other top racers. Available in Red/White/ Black and sizes S – 2XL.
RJAYS
www.rjays.com.au
Booster – $79.95
Touring winter glove made from A-Grade drum dyed leather and polyester construction featuring a Thinsulate liner for added comfort
Track R - $299.95
New for 2019 in Australia is Macna’s premium track focussed race
MACNA www.macnaridinggear.com.au
Assault - $99.95
With the fl exibility and low weight of an Enduro glove but the protection of a street glove. Perfect for those riders who do not like the bulky feel of traditional
and warmth, waterproof and breathable Hipora insert, Kevlar and Superfabric abrasion pads on the palm, silver refl ective striping across back of hand and index fi ngers and a double Velcro wrist and cuff closure. Available in Black and Men’s sizes XS – 3XL and Ladies XS – XL.
DAINESE
www.cassons.com.au
glove, the Track R. Constructed from a combination of kangaroo leather, cow leather and goat leather and featuring Macna’s RISC
Tempest D-Dry Long - $149.95
An extremely versatile glove the Tempest D-Dry has abundant innovative features from a Visor wipe, Comfortech knuckles, Smart Touch fi ngertips for use with touch screens and of course Dainese’s own
special feature Gloves
reinforced palm, tightening strap, pre-curved fingers, adjustable cuff strap and soft inserts. Available in colours: Black/ Black, Black/Red or Black/ Yellow Fluro and sizes 3XS –3XL (depending on colour).
www.andystrapz.com
Rainoff overgloves - $70
Remember that cosy feeling of sitting behind a window near a heater with the rain pouring down outside?
Andy Strapz reckons Rain-Off overgloves give him a similar sensation. Cosy and dry while mother nature does her worst. The overgloves are
Rev’it Dominator GTX - $379
The Dominator GTX gloves have been developed for around-theworld riding. Made for all weather types the Goretex and Gore Grip technology keep your hands warm when it’s cold and dry when you perspire. The outer shell is made from various leathers, chosen on the levels of safety and comfort they offer while they also come equipped with perforated dual comp protectors for added airflow.
Klim 2019 Adventure GTX Short - $285
The ultimate world-travelling, all-terrain waterproof leather glove features an extremely durable low-
profile design loaded with innovative impact coverage technology that’ll keep your hands safe. The superior grip and breathability of the Goretex and Gore Grip technology make all the difference on those long rides. These gloves are the high-mileage masters of your adventure riding experience.
Rev’it Stratos GTX - $219 100% waterproof Goretex lined winter glove. The Stratos GTX is a stylish combination of leather and textile shell materials. Inside there is a warm Thinsulate G thermal liner working in tandem with the Goretex
membrane to keep your hands comfortable through the winter. Rev’it’s own developed “Seesoft 3D” knuckle provides impact protection and the single motion closure provides a convenient but secure fit.
RUKKA www.innotesco.com.au
Imatra - $341
Thanks to thin but highly effective wadding with temperature regulating Outlast, this attractive leather glove
ensures the hands stay warm even in cold air temperatures without impeding the fine touch on levers and switches. In the rain, a durably waterproof and breathable Gore Tex membrane keeps the hands dry and a practical wiper on the left hand index finger guarantees clear vision. Safety is not only assured by highly abrasion resistant leather but also by integrated detailing for knuckles, scaphoid and fingers as well as by the joint strap that connects the little finger to the ring finger. Sturdy Velcro strips on the cuff and wrist provide for a perfect fit. In addition, touchscreen fingertips for thumbs and index fingers allow operating a GPS system or a smart phone with gloves on.
Available in red and white, high vis yellow or grey with black and sizes 6 through 14 Euro.
Mars 2.0$215
The Mars 2.0 leather gloves are 100% wind and waterproof as well as breathable thanks to a GoreTex membrane. They have a visor wiper on the left index finger, knuckle padding, and leather reinforcements on the edge of the hand. Long cuffs keep out water and wind. The cuffs have Velcro adjusters to help ensure a safe and comfortable ride in any situation, as does an elastic pleat on the back of the hand. The inner polar fleece lining will keep the hands warm even on colder days. Available exclusively in black, the gloves come in the sizes 7 through 14 Euro.
Virium - $220
speeding up the gloves’ drying. Plus, this layout makes for excellent grip feel, essential for a well-controlled actuation of brake, clutch and switches. Moreover, pulling out the liner when putting off the gloves is a matter of the past. Made from extremely abrasion resistant high quality Cordura upper material, excels by its comprehensive features: integrated detailing for knuckles, scaphoid and fingers increases safety, while coated fabric improves grip on the palms. Stretch inserts and sturdy Velcro strips on the cuffs and wrists provide for a perfect fit. When it is raining, the visor wiper on the left hand index finger always guarantees clear vision. In addition, touchscreen fingertips for thumbs and index fingers on both gloves allow operating a GPS system or a smart phone with gloves on. Available in all black or with grey palms and in grey or high vis yellow, the Virium gloves are available in the sizes 7 through 13.
HELD BIKER FASHION
X Trafit technology by Gore denotes a three layer laminate, consisting of the upper material, a wind and waterproof as well as highly breathable GoreTex climate membrane and liner. This construction creates some great advantages: in the rain the gloves do not get soaked, protecting the rider’s hands from cooling out and vastly
fingers in lightweight mesh fabric protection, hard plastic knuckle protection covered with Superfabric
special feature Gloves
brand material (32% polyester, 68% epoxy resin), Superfabric reinforcement on edge of hand and a double leather at palm. Available in Black and men’s sizes 6-12, ladies’
back, perforated finger side walls, perforated hand for maximum ventilation, feel and comfort, special foam knuckle and finger protection and Superfabric reinforcement on edge of hand. Available in Black and sizes 6-11.
Cold Champ - $290
A premium winter glove made from a goatskin palm and Taslan (100% polyester), featuring a leather detailed back lining, 3M Thinsulate lining (65% polyolefin, 35% polyester), Thermoplush fleece (100% polyester) on the back of the hand, GoreTex membrane (100% polyester with 100% polyurethane coating), tunnel strap, Velcro adjustment at wrists and cuffs, visor wipe, stretch
fabric panels (100% polyamide) on back, leather covered hard plastic knuckle protection, 3M Scotchlite reflectors and Superfabric reinforcement on edge of hand. Available in Black and sizes 7-12.
Air Stream II - $195
Made from a highly abrasionresistant kangaroo leather palm and mesh fabric (100% polyester), featuring a leather detailed back, colourfast and sweat-proof lining, Kevlar and DuPont Coolmax lined back, special step seam avoids pressure points on inner hand and enhances feel, Velcro adjustment at cuffs,
Eastern Europe shows its delights... even at 39 degrees WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR
Any oF The great comedians will tell you that it’s all in the timing. As I passed the lone barn in upcountry Hungary at about 90km/h, the first dog just managed to clear the front wheel of my 821 Monster with its canine backside as it crossed the road in front of me. The nose of the second one almost touched my engine casing. I later calculated that the distance between the pair would have been about a foot and a half. Just enough to fit the bike through. At the time I was too busy just trying to get my heart to stop from exploding to do much calculating.
Eastern Europe is not predictable the way the western part of the continent is. It’s kind of relaxed like the countries along the Mediterranean, but more so. The people here have only recently become part of the ‘modern world’ – you can see that because there are almost no old cars. Most people didn’t have cars before the Iron Curtain came down in 1989, and it’s taken a while to build up wealth. Considering that, the standard of driving is not too bad at all – and the standard of courtesy on the road is high. It is quite normal for cars and trucks, and even buses, to move to the right side of the road and turn on their right-hand blinker if they see that the road ahead is clear.
There is remarkably little roadkill; domestic animals don’t have the same sort of road sense that their relatives in the West have acquired
1. Is a Ducati 821 Monster the ideal bike for a three and a half thousand kilometre tour of Eastern Europe’s somewhat variable roads, in mid-30s temperatures? Well, err, no. But if life hands (or foots) you blisters, make callouses…
2. Susi heeds the warning to avoid the black hose – it is diesel just about anywhere in the world. She’s Swiss but worked in Melbourne for a couple of years, hence the T-shirt. On Edelweiss tours you fill your own bike.
over the decades, but they don’t show up deceased at the side of the road the way one of my doggy mates very easily could have. But to be fair, I probably shouldn’t have been doing 90 to start with. I just wanted the air flow to cool me down.
I’m just going to go on about the heat here for a while, so I won’t have to keep mentioning it in the story. It was hot; the temperature reached 39 degrees out on the road. Worse than that, I was equipped for cool to cold weather. I made a miscalculation when I packed for the tour: after checking the climate rather than the weather figures on the interwebs, I expected a cool ride. I certainly didn’t expect the heatwave I got when I packed my trusty Klim suit.
I’ve worn the Klim Kodiak suit (how could I resist a suit named after a bear?) on several rides now and have
always been happy with its effectiveness and practicality. Unfortunately, even its ten zip-open vents were overwhelmed by this heatwave. Mind you, I wasn’t the only one to be sweaty at the end of the day. Several of our group looked as if they’d had a shower when it came to the end of the day – inside their suits. I just rode with the jacket open, and that helped a bit. So did dousing my T-shirt with water at every opportunity.
My favourite one-line joke is: “What did you think of the play apart from that, Mrs Lincoln?” What did I think of the Edelweiss Eastern European Delights tour… apart from that heat?
I’ll leave the summary for the end of the story, but here’s something to prepare you for what’s coming: communism was not good for Eastern Europe’s living standards,
but it was good for preserving many existing buildings and streetscapes. Towns here have central squares, for example, and where in the West the temptation would have been to replace some of the square’s buildings with new ones, in the East many of the existing buildings were restored – or at least left alone - and the streetscape preserved because it was cheaper. Mind you, the outskirts of the towns are often littered with truly awful blocks of communist-era walk-up flats.
So you can expect towns just as pretty as they were before WW2; since the fall of the Curtain, local authorities have kept up the look and even improved it with pedestrian zones. As Edelweiss mentions in the tour brochure, it is a good time to go and see all this before the place is drowned in the same tourist
wave that’s obliterated much of the charm of Western towns and cities. It’s a genuine pleasure to walk with the locals through the squares and streets of these places in the evenings, even apart from the amazing ice cream stands and small pubs offering their wares.
That walk is almost a metaphor for the New East, certainly on this tour. Edelweiss mostly selects hotels in or near the centre of the old parts of towns, so you can take that relaxed walk and immerse yourself in a bit of history while sipping the excellent beer or wine.
We left Vienna, split into two groups of seven or eight riders because it was quite big tour, and headed north on small back roads through Austria’s ‘wine quarter’, the country’s best-known but far from the only wine-growing district. This gave me
a chance to familiarize myself with my bike for the tour – a Ducati 821 Monster I named Godzilla Jnr for its ability to inspire terror. Mine. A Monster is not a good choice for the often awful roads in Eastern Europe. Why was I riding it? Well, the paying customers get their choice of bike, while invited, non-paying guests get what’s left in the stable… not that I’m complaining. Much.
The border to the Czech Republic has been pretty much obliterated; both it and Austria are part of the Schengen Zone (see box). There have been other times when much of Europe has lacked borders, and we reached the cause of one of those times in the afternoon. The site of the battle of Austerlitz is marked by a smallish memorial and a slightly larger museum, a remarkably minimal but nevertheless respectful approach to
There’ll be peace in the valley… the late evening mountains from our hotel in Admont, Austria.
Look down, look down, that lonesome road… traffic in Eastern Europe, here in Slovakia, is still remarkably light and most car, truck and bus drivers are remarkably courteous, showing you their right blinker if they see that the road ahead is clear for you to overtake. Many even pull over as far as they can to the right.
commemorating the battle that gave Napoleon control of Europe. Road quality declined somewhat but we didn’t have far to go after Austerlitz. Our hotel in Kromeriz was in a modernized old building on the town square which had air conditioning and a bar – which did not have beer. Another bar, next door, did and I hardly need to tell you about the outstanding quality of the Czech brew. On most nights we ate in the hotel, but this night we ate at a restaurant across the square which –
When they close up shop in the Czech Republic, they close up shop.These doors in Kromeriz have probably been there for several hundred years, and I bet they worked a treat all that time.
Freedom shouldn’t be compromised
And having the right insurance with the right insurer is the first step in making sure you’re always free to ride.
New England Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd (NEIB) has been providing custom motorcycle insurance solutions to Australian riders for 30 years. The majority of the NEIB team are owners and riders themselves. They understand what it means to know your motorcycle is protected by the right insurance, so you can ride with complete peace of mind.
With NEIB, nothing gets between you and the road:
NEIB are the only people you need to talk to when arranging your insurance. With special licensing arrangements, the NEIB team can handle all aspects of your motorcycle insurance with courtesy and efficiency.
They also know that with insurance, security is the key:
NEIB has been working with CGU Insurance for over twenty years. Chosen for their long history operating in Australia and excellent credit rating, CGU Insurance is part of Australia’s largest general insurance group, IAG.
With two or three wheels, NEIB has you covered:
NEIB are motorcycle insurance specialists in Australia and have a policy that is perfect for whatever you’re riding including:
• Cover for high value and custom-built motorcycles;
• Automatic Flexible Riding Gear cover provided to different levels of protection*;
• Motorcycles/Trikes cover for Tour Operators;
• Public Liability insurance for Tour Operators underwritten by CGU;
• Flexible payment options.
yes – had beer as well as excellent local food. On tour, Edelweiss picks up the bill for dinner. Not the beer, though.
Small roads became even smaller and even less trafficked as we headed for the next, once again almost invisible border in a small mountain range. For some reason I had an image of an industrialised and polluted country in my mind when I thought of Slovakia. Couldn’t have been more wrong; while Slovakia does have some of the most polluted cities in Europe, we didn’t come near any of them. Instead, we found ourselves riding through magnificent evergreen forest on narrow and admittedly pretty ordinary tarred roads. Eventually we stopped in the small village of Cicmany, well off the beaten track, where decorations that seemed oddly reminiscent of mathematical formulas but are actually embroidery patterns cover the wooden buildings.
Just down the road, at Bojnice, we stopped to take a look at a castle which was first mentioned in records
1. Allegedly the inhabitants of this small village began painting their houses like this to protect the wood. Can’t quite see how that would work. I suspect instead that it’s more likely that they were trying to encourage tourists to stop for photo, and you can see the proof of that theory right here!
2. Just one horsepower, but cheap to run. Horses are still in common use as draft animals in Romania, but it’s interesting to see that the carts have replaced their ironrimmed, wooden-spoked wheels with surplus car and truck wheels.The rubber meets the road even in the remotest places.
3. Kathryn and John from Collegeville in the US head out on their 1250 GS.The big BMWs are the preferred bike not only from Edelweiss but also with other riders; many of them on this trip were from Poland.
PERFORMANCE PERFECTED
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Road works, here in Romania, are a common holdup in Eastern Europe as the various countries catch up to the road quality of the West. It can be a bit annoying, but it’s easy to understand why it’s necessary.
in 1113 and has since seen more remodeling than a Kardashian. Currently it has a French look, and is quite magnificent. The food at a restaurant in its forecourt was good too. Slovak cooks tend to adjust Garfield’s “deep fry that sucker” to “char grill that zelenac” with outstanding success. They make a mean soup, too, and they have not yet reached the level of sophistication that feeds tourists rubbish, like the West. Another castle served for our accommodation that night, and
Listen up… the Edelweiss morning briefings are intended to not only prepare riders for the day’s route, but also to offer the possibility of taking alternative roads. In my experience, most if not all riders go with the guides. After all, their knowledge is one of the things you pay for.
unusually it was out in the countryside in Liptovsky Hradok. No sign of the eponymous smelly Liptov cheese. The
1.There are good roads even in Slovakia, but as you can see in this photo, we rode a lot of not-so-good ones. I’m not complaining; they led through wonderful scenery. I had always thought of Slovakia as an industrial wasteland and was pleasantly surprised to find extensive forests.
2. It’s been thirty years now since Communism took its leave from Eastern Europe, and religion has returned to take its place more completely than anywhere else in the world except maybe Latin America.
3. Dracula might not find this platter to his taste, but everyone else surely does.The food available on the tour, even at absolute tourist stops like Bram Castle, was excellent and interesting. Remarkably affordable, too. Eastern Europe is still reasonably priced –but get in soon!
basic castle – little more than a tower – is being restored, and the hotel is in a separate, newer wing. I loved the full set of shiny armor that guarded the reception, and enjoyed a few drinks on the peaceful terrace with my fellow-tourers.
Next day was a wonderful opportunity to ride along the lower reaches of the High Tatra mountains though ski resorts and seemingly endless forest. It’s easy to get carried away with the ‘wildness’ of this country; in fact it’s all forestry, trees planted to be chopped down. But you see little sign of that apart from occasional log trucks which barrel along the same way they do in Australia and everywhere else. We just nipped into Poland for half an hour to follow a scenic road along the border. Overnight was in Kovice where our hotel was right on the main pedestrian zone, a green strip of land that includes a park with the most amazing fountains, played in time with a barrel organ.
I mean seriously, fountains played in
TOUR NEW ZEAL AND on your own bike
Plastic versus cardboard
One of The Bear’s Existential Philosophy propositions states that certain things exist to be useful, while others exist merely to exist.
Australian motorcycle riders’ licenses are in the first group, while International Driving Permits are in the second. I have been told again and again that I needed a Permit for one ride or another, and it has never mattered. My plastic license with its photo of me and the clear indication that I am entitled to ride a motorcycle has always proven to be adequate.
No-one has ever asked for the grey cardboard Permit, on the other hand. I have therefore concluded that I do not need one. Now I am going against some pretty serious advice to the contrary, so I’m not going to suggest that you not get a Permit when someone tells you to. It’s your call. But I’m over it.
The boys do a bit of overnight repair work at our hotel in Predeal, Romania. From left, they are Matthias, James and Pierre – Austrian, Australian and Belgian. No, I told you – no Belgian jokes! They are pretty well equipped to take care of small matters as they arise.
time with a barrel organ. Amazement, as Effie would say. We collected yet another country with a quick dash across the northeastern ‘panhandle’ of Hungary and sampled our first ATM in a small
1. A stop at an ATM to acquire some Hungarian forints.While the euro has conquered many countries in Europe, there are still outliers which continue to use their old currency. Fortunately, almost everyone these days takes cards. And isn’t it amazing to think that a servo in a small village in the Transylvanian mountains can communicate with your bank in Australia almost instantly!
2.When the Romanians fortify their churches, they damn well fortify their churches! Looking more like a medium-sized castle, this mediaeval church looms over the small town in has served for many decades.
And heere’s… a typical stretch of road in the mountains. No, it wasn’t all like this by far; EU money has meant that many roads are up to western standard. But if you want to ride the back roads, as we did, you have to take what you can get.
village near the border. I never cease to be amazed by the convenience of these things; not only will they communicate with your bank in Australia almost instantly to give you local money, but they’ll provide instructions in English.
Our destination was Romania, the country in which we would be spending most of our time on this ride. Entering Romania is like crossing a real border; the country is not part of the Schengen Zone. Our guide James was concerned that some of us, including me, did not
have International Driving Permits; apparently a bloke on a tour in the preceding year had been given grief about this by Romanian border guards.
As it turned out, they weren’t even interested in seeing licenses. They just took the passports of all the people from outside Europe, kept them for a quarter of an hour and then returned them.
When he was collecting passports, the Romanian border guard was puzzled that Kalanda from Colorado was riding, rather than pillioning behind her husband Gary. She told him that she liked to do her own riding, and he rolled his eyes at the rest of us as if to say, “Americans!” Amazingly, it looked like rain on our way to our overnight stop in Oradea. We made it well before the heavens opened, but in the parking lot of the hotel the heavens opened in another way: guide Pierre produced a coolbox
On the approach to the pass.There are waterfalls everywhere in the mountains, and many people drive up here to fill containers with the pure water to take home. Makes you wonder about the quality of the tap water –but nobody on the tour got a bug.
filled with cans of beer to take the edge off the day’s heat. Pierre, my man! It did rain a little while later, and we sat at big picture windows and watched it come down. Wow. Rain, eh. The little bit of cooling the rain had brought was gone by morning as we set off for Transylvania. With loops of garlic around our necks, we… no, sorry. No garlic. Just credit cards. They protect you even better. Just wave yours when you see the vampire coming, and he’ll produce a remote terminal. On the way south-east we rode through the Apuseni Mountains
Pecs, in Hungary, follows the regional predilection for scantily-clad stone nymphs to guard its public buildings. Softcore public pornography or just, well, a predilection for scantily-clad nymphs? I’m not arguing, mind you.
and their beautiful eponymous national park. Wonderful riding (except for the road surface) and lots of excellent corners.
Sighisoara, our overnight stop, is one of those fascinating towns in the east settled by Germans at the request of the local king. They were considered
“Tis but a flesh wound!” My mate Arnie and I at his museum, set up in his old home near Graz in Austria. As one of my fellow-travelers noted after checking out the man’s bedroom and the other displays, that was seven euros well spent!
Jnr,
a settling influence, and this trick was even used by Catherine the Great. Predictably enough it worked, and
Sighisoara is a beautifully constructed and maintained city well worth exploring. It’s also the birthplace of Vlad Tepes, the model for Dracula. He was not a blood sipper, but he did make a point of impaling anyone who died – in battle or naturally – by the roadside to make it clear that he was not to be mucked about with. The Byzantine army, which he was trying to hold off at this stage, took a good look at the
The famous Edelweiss Picnic. Usually lunch is at your own expense, but on a couple of days when that isn’t convenient, the guide driving the van stops at the local shops and puts together a varied picnic of smallgoods, fruit, bread and whatever else is available and delicious.
bizarre spectacle and went home. I could have taken the alternative route today to see the Turda salt mine, which offers a huge underground amusement park including a lake where you can rent paddleboats and a bowling alley! What was I thinking?
Dracula’s alleged castle (Vlad never set foot in it, apparently) was waiting for us in Bran, but on the way we checked out another German innovation, a fortified church. Interestingly enough, my home village grew around a fortified church at about the same time as this one was built. Well, I just said ‘interestingly’; it might only be interesting to me, but there it is.
Bran Castle is in a valley rather than being perched on a rock as Dracula’s was alleged to have been, but the traders in the crowded alleys selling tourist tatt that surround it certainly know how to extract your blood in exchange for preposterous souvenirs. One high point was a bloke in a ute who was collecting donations to the local forest protection group. He had what he optimistically claimed was a wolf in the tray of the ute, but wolfie was just a big and good-natured
Godzilla
my 821 Monster, takes a break from pounding my backside. Beautiful plumage, as they might say on Monty Python, but an unforgiving suspension and seat. Mind you, I’ve ridden further in worse comfort. Even in higher temperatures than the 39 degrees we encountered in Hungary.
dog augmented by a vicious little dachshund. Nobody had any utes with vampires in them; maybe that’s part of the nightlife.
Our hotel was over on the other side of a range of hills out of sight of Bran Castle, but its wrought-iron furniture fi tted right in with the vampire theme. I do wonder if vampires have air conditioning, though.
The Austrian wine region of Styria has everything, even a road in the shape of a heart… this is wonderfully beautiful and rich country which produces not only wine but also all kinds of other foodstuff.
And then – came the Transfagarasan! I’ve long been doubtful about Top Gear’s claim that this is the best motoring road
Just a reminder that this was a motorcycle tour, not just a trip around the historical and other attractions of Eastern Europe. The Monster was fun on the better roads of Austria, and to tell the truth I’d become a bit used to it after the first 3000 kilometres…
in the world, and I remain so. But I’ve got to say that it’s far more impressive than I thought, due not to
Prabang (UNESCO World Heritage Site), Mountains to Oudom Xai, Chiang Rai, Golden Triangle, Mekong River, Road of 1,864 curves, Long Neck Hill Tribe, Doi Inthanon
TOUR DATE NOV 24 - DEC 8
In the Zone
The Schengen Zone comprises 26 European countries which have abolished all passport and other types of border control at their mutual borders. It is a single jurisdiction for international travel purposes, with a common visa policy. A few countries are part of the EU but are non-Schengen states.
Anyone travelling on an Australian passport doesn't need a visa to travel to countries in the Schengen Zone for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. If you leave the Zone and return within the same 180-day period, the previous stay will count towards the 90 day maximum. If you stay more than 90 days in a 180-day period without a valid visa, you may be fi ned or banned from entering the Schengen Zone again. Check the interwebs for a list of the countries involved.
the barren view usually shown but to the wonderful approach roads which twist their way up with almost endless corners through coniferous forests. Spectacular riding, especially on the southern side, but don’t lose concentration. I diced with a group of three BMW Z-type sports cars (3s or 4s? Who knows?) and they beat me because they didn’t stop for photos.
The part of the Transfagarasan that you see in the usual photos is remarkably similar to Trollstigen in
Norway, although it lacks the rocks piled up in heaps. Are there no trolls in Romania to enjoy these?
Sibiu is a knockout. We stayed in the Hotel Continental Forum, which is more like a huge alien spacecraft that’s landed on the outskirts of the old town, but which of course was comfortable and convenient. Off to one side, the old town beckoned with some beautiful old buildings and the Transylvanian Film Festival, an intriguing open-air celebration which seemed to require thousands of plastic chairs in the main square. I watched for a while as the workforce deployed these and then, exhausted from simply looking on, retired to one of the bars for a rejuvenating drink. Ah, that’s better. No, no, just keep arranging those chairs…
The ride from Sibiu to Timisoara includes the Tansalpina, a road that returns south over the same mountain range that the Transfagarasan crosses. In its own way it is more enjoyable because it’s less known and therefore less busy. Most of the time. We tackled it on a Sunday, one of the few mistakes that Edelweiss made on this trip. The road was busy, to the point that southbound traffi c in the tunnel leading to the pass was stationary. There weren’t many vehicles coming the other way so I simply overtook half a kilometre’s worth of underground traffi c jam in one go. Easy when you know how.
The thing is, nobody minded. I got thumbs up all along.
Our hotel in Timisoara was a beauty. It was just the place we needed to relax after the moderately stressful
days we had had. A quadrangle around a garden and a pool, the hotel offered the opportunity to just sit, chat and relax. Edelweiss does have a touch for selecting hotels. Perhaps we should have been encouraged to sample the town’s centre, a beautiful experience by all reports, but what we wanted was a break – and this was the perfect place for that.
And then Hungary loomed, to the north and west. It is a country that, how do I put this, does not offer much in the way of riding joy to motorcyclists. I mean, the food’s great, the people are nice… but the countryside (at least down here in the south) is fl at, corners tend to be right angles and the road surface on secondary roads is terrible. You can just ride more slowly, of course, but that just means you’re looking at the fl at lands for even longer. Our overnight stay in Pecs was fun, with dinner in the open air of the pedestrian precinct. This is a university town, so the population tends to be young and fun.
The countryside became hilly in the morning, and after we crossed the river Drava and the border into our last country of the ride, Slovenia, we found ourselves in the foothills of a range of hills. We followed them and the Drava almost all day, which meant enjoyable riding. We also had the pleasure of anticipating a thunderstorm (see how your priorities change when conditions change?) to relieve the heat. It struck after we had reached the relative safety of our overnight hotel’s rooftop terrace in Maribor where we could watch it lash its rain across the
Drava. Then the canvas roof of the terrace failed and we got an even closer look at the deluge.
Once upon a time Maribor was a typical border city, making the most of its location between Austria and the then Yugoslavia and becoming wealthy in the process. It’s one place that didn’t benefit from the collapse of the Iron Curtain, but the entrepreneurial spirit was strong and these days it’s a kind of bigger Queanbeyan.
It was like a reward for coping with Hungary when we crossed the border into Austria in the morning. This part of the country is called Styria and is known for its wines and Arnold Schwarzenegger, not necessarily in that order. The riding on the tiny back roads we used was wonderful, but you needed to have your wits about you as they twisted around the many vine-bearing hills. I’m used to seeing grape vines planted in rows at right angles to the slope of the hills, but in Styria the rows run up and down the slope. Can someone
explain the difference?
Did you know that his father disapproved of young Arnold’s interest in bodybuilding? Just as well that his mother differed with the old man; imagine if the Terminator had been played by Tom Cruise. The Arnold Schwarzenegger museum in the suburbs of Graz offers an unpretentious display of the man’s early life and a heap of stuff from his movies, including a TV set that plays shorts. That’s about the only high tech bit of the museum; like me, most of the others found it oddly charming.
We spent the rest of that day and almost all of the next simply enjoying the Austrian roads and alpine scenery. Godzilla Jr finally came into its own. Our hotel in the small mountain town of Admont had remarkable views of the mountains, and in the morning we got to ride them. Perfect. We stopped for a tour of the Erzberg iron ore mine, where we checked out the route of the annual dirt bike Erzberg Rodeo. And then we were
back in Vienna. Our guide Matthias was a local and took us on a tour of the back roads in the suburbs, which saved us the hour that the other group spent sitting in traffic.
This tour is remarkable for variety it offers – apart from the riding there are scenic, political, architectural, philosophical and historical sides to it. I could easily go back and spend more time in each of the places we visited, because there is so much more to see and understand. Eastern Europe is a treasure chest. We only just got to open the clasps. With more time, it could yield understanding that would dazzle us for years. It’s a magic land, the source of far more of our myths than just Dracula. Take a look if you can. I’m pretty sure that like Arnie “I’ll be baack...”
(The Bear took part in the Edelweiss Bike Travel ‘Eastern European Delights’ tour at the invitation of the company. He paid his own incidental expenses.) D
LAUNCH TEAROUTMAP#79
13’S YOUR NUMBER
Mount Lindesay Highway, Queensland WORDS/PHOTOS THE BEAR
TO BE HONEST, most of the places these roads - touch on are a bit like what the Americans call Fly-Over States; they’re ride-through towns. That’s not intended as an insult; it’s just that they hold relatively few attractions of potential interest to motorcyclists.
BRISBANE
I doubt if anyone seriously needs any more information than they already have about Brisvegas. It’s one of Australia’s more pleasant capital cities and has a useful entertainment district with Southbank.
JIMBOOMBA
The name derives from an Aboriginal phrase meaning ‘place of loud thunder and little rain’ and the town is both a major residential suburb of Brisbane and a manufacturing centre in its own right. Like they say in the movies, “nothing to see here”.
www.hemamaps.com.au
One of the things we’ve looked for with the roads we’ve chosen for you is the opportunity to use them as alternatives to more established routes. The Mount Lindesay Highway, Queensland Highway 13, fi ts perfectly into that choice.
The most popular route between Sydney and Brisbane is the Pacifi c Highway, followed by the New England Highway, Federal Highway 15. With the recent upgrades that both of them have seen, this isn’t surprising. But whether you’re going south from Brisbane or heading north from Sydney, a bit of variety is probably going to be welcome. In the case of anyone using the New England Highway we can even save you some distance. Leaving Brisbane, just head south on Alternative Route 1, which becomes Ipswich Road. In Tarragindi, keep left and take Beaudesert Road.
That becomes the Mount Lindesay Highway after you pass the M2 Motorway. From here on just keep going south until you cross into NSW and fi nd yourself in Woodenbong. Alternatively, you can turn off onto the Lions’ Road just before or in Rathdowney. This is the beginning of the Green Route and will take you into NSW too, and after joining the Summerland Way at Wiangaree it will take you to Kyogle. From here you can just keep going south on the Summerland Way to Grafton, where the Princes Highway is waiting for you. Alternatively, you can turn off to the east in Casino and join the Princes Highway earlier. If you’re going north, take a right in Tenterfi eld if you’ve come up the New England Highway, onto the Bruxner Highway. Leave that at or just past Tabulam, turning left to Bonalbo and Woodenbong beyond that. A longer but possibly
TEAR-OUT MAP #79
even prettier alternative would be to continue on the New England Highway to Warwick and cut south through Legume to Woodenbong. Coming up the Princes Highway you could take the Green Route in reverse, starting in Grafton and heading up the Summerland Way. If you prefer to stay on the superslab, you could continue on the Princes Highway into Queensland and turn off at Oxenford/Coomera to head for Beaudesert. This is the Pink Route. In reverse, this makes a good connection from the New England Highway to the Gold Coast – or vice versa, of course.
Got a bit of spare time and feel like letting the horses run a bit? Turn off the Mount Lindesay Highway at Rathdowney and return to it at Beaudesert by way of Boonah. This is the Yellow Route. A terrifi c run with predominantly good surface and some fun riding.
COLLECT THEM ALL
BEAUDESERT
Not far from the water wonderland of Wyaralong Dam, Beaudesert makes a good coffee stop. It has an historical museum which is open 10am to 2pm and has some vintage machinery. The Captain Logan Memorial is, er, a big rock.
RATHDOWNEY
With a population of about 500, Rathdowney is not so much a town as a place half the size of the town it’s named after in Ireland but it has a nice pub. There’s also fuel and advice to be had from the same place. The fuel can be better than the advice.
WOODENBONG
The name may or may not mean wood ducks, but the little town on Woodenbong is set in beautiful and dramatic countryside and is quite a pretty place in its own right. Fuel is available until 5pm. Tooloom Falls is just to the south, with campsites, picnic facilities and toilets.
COUGAL
This place may be there, but I’ve never spotted it and I’ve spent quite a bit of time in this area. It’s allegedly on the Lions’ Road. There is a café called Ripples just south of where Cougal is alleged to be, which may or may not be open. If it is, it has good coffee.
TAMBORINE
Not a bad place for supplies, but that’s about it. It is at the foot of Mount Tamborine, which has rather more to offer including a very decent craft brewery.
BOONAH
If you’ve decided on the detour, stop in at Flavours Café in Boonah and get Graham to show you some of his motorcycling paraphernalia. Boonah is also the site of the annual Horizons Unlimited get-together, which is a lot of fun. D
We’ll settle this on the street WORDS raLph ph O t OS r aLph & a urora
Ihave witnessed more than my fair share of debates in pubs around Australia. Of course, politics, religion and fishing tales go with the territory, but given most of my travels are on a motorcycle, you will be able to guess where this is going. The conversations range from who is the fastest with how much lean angle, to what’s the best brand or model. I generally take the passive approach naturally, and go with the 'it depends'.
Now, once talk shifts to big V-twin cruisers of an American persuasion I tend to bow out entirely, knowing it may not end well and the five-dollar schooner may go to waste. Such is the polarising nature of Harley-Davidson between me and their ‘tribe’. It has taken forty-five years and perhaps a dozen really decent rides over the last few years here at AMM to ‘get the idea’ of what Hogs are all about. Let’s get to hard truths of riding these touring machines, and especially the Road Glide Special which was thrown at us to appraise. The idea was mainly to digest the latest changes to the sound and navigation systems. Here comes the change of heart.
The 114 Road Glide is one of the most relaxed, most comfortable beasts you could ever knock up big miles on, said this now-besotted rider. Okay, we better go outside and leave the beer on the bar. Let’s see. The rider's seat is one of the very best in padding and shape. So is the relaxed way most riders’ arms will find their natural position. The most impressive thing for me, and please note Old Mate, I just rode 480 kilometres today to have a beer with you and my mates (and park the H-D in the shed behind the pub, thanks Wendy), is the suspension is designed extremely well to deal with the wet weight of 388kg and also find the middle-ground to handle well. After all, the big asset for reasonable comfort is the weight and stretched wheelbase of 1625mm.
My son was on the pillion seat (and sad to say it's a shocker, one that slopes slightly to the rear and is very slippery) for half of those kilometres. The rear shock absorbers are limited
in travel and any decent bump or ripple sends a reminder that any other tourer like the Ducati Multistrada, Kawasaki Versys or the BMW R or X series will have you visiting a chiropractor rather less frequently. I suspect putting on a brave face helps. Comfort is still 8 out of 10.
Old mate, did I say relaxed? Relaxed in a spiritual, ‘I'm at-one-with-theworld’ way? Yep, after we set some parameters. I found that the beast’s size meant that until I was away and up into third gear, I couldn't really put on my happy face. By the time your speed overcomes the inertia and the initial phase of acceleration is out of the way, then indeed the Road Glide is super-relaxing to ride.
I found I rarely revved the powerful and torquey 114 cube twin over 3000rpm. You can, and it is a belter in acceleration, but it doesn't suit the lazy nature of cruising. From 3000 to 5500 is the place to go if you want to validate that investment of nearly $38,000 to break the speed limit. To be relaxed, though, know that there are few motorcycles that can be as smooth or as relaxing as in the 100-110 cruise of this bike. I was tapping over the 2500 mark for most of my riding. It is, admittedly, a criticism that that is the happy place and no other speed range doesn't score that 10 out of 10. Still, this is the bike with the big engine. Now, let’s head back to the safety of the front bar.
What’s that you say? HarleyDavidsons will never go around a corner at a decent speed, nor will you end up in the same lane on exit due to the undercarriage dragging itself into oblivion - such is the lack of ground clearance.
Nonsense. Fighting words and very much not true! Once you get your head around the light, direct steering and pick an arc that keeps up the cornering speed as well as allowing for bumps, the Roadie belies its size and bulk. It cuts a fine, fast line on any smooth road and I can say through the South Coast twists and turns, the pace was hot and we didn't scrap anything. At any rate, my riding style
Photo by Barnabas Imre
of more pronounced body (and that's another altogether pub debate) posture is to keep my body inside the bike and have the bike more upright reducing the lean angle and risk of being pushed out of my lane. Works for me and works for the big old girl. The 2019 Road Glide is enhanced by a new rider package and it's a beauty. I haven't got to the bottom of every facet (I have only had the bike for a few days with a dozen more to go) and I'm challenged in the technology department. Isn't every Harley rider? The large 6.5inch TFF screen provides navigation. trip information and a sound system that is alleged to be the best and probably is. It is loud and clear. Harley-Davidson told us to expect a massive improvement of processing speed and simpler interaction. The two joysticks that control the selection of modes, volume and menu appear to be still a little complicated. I accept I'm a techno-nimby but aren't these things designed for adult humans and not 12-year olds? I think this tech is to a degree a bit of a bragging thing and I never really miss it when I jump back on our long term Royal Enfield Interceptor. Of course things would be different if you owned one of these, and had time to familiarise yourself with it.
You can't argue about the fact that the Bar & Shield 'owns’ six of the 10 spots of the cruiser figures for the first six months of 2019. You don't
fl
og 1300 motorcycles of American made steel and chrome (including 298 Indian-built Street 500 units) without knowing how it's done. To virtually own a slice of the market involves understanding how to build quality, and market it in such a way that the buyer gets exactly what he wants. Naturally a large percent of buyers will never entertain buying another product.
The lighting is spectacular with the dual LED headlights doing their night-dance on low beam and the high beam penetrating well into the distance. A tourer which is economical and a large fuel capacity are good news. The horn creates a path in the shipping lane. We will all be time-poor and cleaning product savvy keeping the brilliant lustre shining at its best. Try three hours after a few hours of country roads and some much needed rain. No one is likely to agonize if their money is well spent in a completive market. An inventive accountant should be able to write off travelling cost if you own a business and your weekends will never be the same once you join the fraternity. So, selecting your next motorcycle? In this class the Special with its black engine, exhaust, suspension, Talon wheels and the deepest darkest blue that changes shade in all manner of light stands out effortlessly. I'm sure a few drivers (get off your mobiles please) thought I was the Police. Never! D
HARLEY-DAVIDSON ROAD GLIDE SPECIAL SPECS
PRICE: $38,795 Ride away
WARRANTY: Two years, unlimited distance
SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 8000km or 12 months
ENGINE: Oil/air cooled V-twin cylinder, twin cam, four valves per cylinder
BORE x STROKE: 102 x 114.3mm
DISPLACEMENT: 1868cc
COMPRESSION: 10.5:1
POWER: N/A
TORQUE: 163Nm @ 3000rpm
TRANSMISSION: 6-speed, wet multi-plate clutch, belt drive
It’s aLwaYs a melancholy pleasure to graze through the remnants of what used to be a pub and ruminate on the times that must’ve been had, laughs shared, accomplishments celebrated and misdeeds covered up. For me it’s a sort of long delayed wake for a person I never knew but whom I sure wish I had.
I spend my morning kicking through what’s known as “Napper’s Ruins”, the remains of the old Lake Bonney Hotel just to the north of the McIntosh Canal on the north west corner of Lake Bonney in the South Australian Riverland.
Then it’s just a 10km squirt west and I’m swinging Super Ten left into Old Coach Road and then pulling up out front of what’s known as the Overland Corner Hotel. It’s Saturday arvo and it’s busy. A group of aging obviously bike riders, many wearing T-shirts with ‘YOC’ *, is filling a couple of the tables in the garden and music is spilling over from the track down to the river.
It’s been a year or so since I was last here but a face I recognise is out front grabbing some rays and its owner recognises me and shouts a welcome.
I ask him to get a chardy ready. He heads inside and as I shed the riding gear, returns with a glass seemingly bereft of a plimsoll line and we plonk down an one of the tables not already taken over by the mob of bikers.
Phil, a Kiwi, and his Netherlandsborn wife Renske took over this place in 2012 after coming to this part of the world as a community engagement officer and viticulturist. He first worked in pubs around the age of 14 cleaning flagons (ah… remember them!) but this is the first one he’s had skin in.
And he’s very quick to point out that this place is not really a pub at all.
“It’s a tourism destination historic site with a liquor license” and it just might be the only place in the country that’s still bound by the 6 o’clock closing laws.
But whatever you want to call it, its doors open seven days a week at
11.00am, closing at the mandatory six on Mondays to Thursday but staying open later on the other three. You can get a lunch any day and dinner on Friday and Saturday but if you’re in a group of six or more and notify ahead, you can get an evening meal whenever you visit.
Lenske now does the cooking because, “we used to get in good chefs but the bigger pubs around the place who could give them more hours kept stealing them from us.”
Phil’s got himself a sav blanc from the range of local wines and as we ease them down we get onto the wonderful and strange history of Overland Corner.
It was built in 8 months in 1859, next door to the then three year old police station, from ancient local limestone by the Brand brothers and in March 1860 William Brand’s application for a Publican’s License was successful. The Overland Corner Hotel was up and running. Soon, along with Napper’s at Lake Bonney where I was this morning and Von Rieben’s at North West Bend down river, it became a landmark outpost for drovers, bullockies, intrepid settlers and, some would argue, the odd bushranger.
It changed hands a few times, survived the police station closing in 1894 but a what the Sydney press of the 1980’s and 90’s would’ve called a ‘colourful identity’ by the name of “Bunyip” Palmer pulled the last beers in 1897 and then pulled up stumps for good.
Phil reckons he knows why Bunyip walked off leaving the pub empty. Since its opening in 1860 the pub’s mainstay was the bullockies (or as Phil calls them, ‘bullockers’) taking fleeces and limestone to Adelaide and bringing station supplies back north. These teams consisted of the bullocky and his offsider who was generally 8-12 years old.
“Once the kids got older than that their feet could reach the stirrups so they became riders and there was more money in droving and they gave the bullocks away.”
But in 1863 the South Australian government passed a new Liquor Act
and section 56 amazingly lifted the legal drinking age to, er, twelve!
It read: Every person licensed to deal in wines or spirits under this Act, who shall knowingly supply any sort of distilled liquor to any boy or girl under the age of twelve years to be drunk upon the premises, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than Twenty Shillings nor more than Five Pounds.
Yep, no longer could 8, 9, 10 or even 11 year olds throw back a nobbler or three between sucking on their cheap ‘backie rollies after a hard day of swearing at beasts of burden! Ah the injustice, the inhumanity! What the hell were they thinking!!
The hotel was blindsided! In one stroke this pub, boxed flank to flank with the police station, lost close to half its clientele!
And that, reckons Phil was the major reason why Bunyip Palmer called ‘last drinks’ at the sadly childless pub for the last time in 1897 and headed for greener, much greener, pastures up river.
Bunyip’s greener pastures were at Renmark which had been established as a prohibition town and his business was selling sly grog. He’d already been busted for doing this in 1893 and contemporaries had marvelled at his wealth.
So I reckon the Overland Corner Pub was just a station in his supply chain to allow him to legally obtain liquor which he’d then move up river for the much more lucrative of illicit selling to settlers (and no doubt their kids!)
With the sound cranking up from the bikers’ amps, I figure it might be wise to rattle my own dags, head down to the river and stake out my claim for the night. I ease through the riders’ campsite giving a few nods to wearers in the usual seemingly mandatory black vests with patches and out across the alluvial fan flat to the riverside.
There’s no room accommodation at the Overland Corner, but the
camping down by the side of the Murray is simply superb. You’d struggle to find a better camp. Anywhere. The sky is cloudless as I unload the tent, set up the Trangia camp stove, blow up my mattress and do the rest of a solivagant’s chores. Home tonight is no more than two metres from the flow.
I make a brew as a pelican patrols the mirror surface of the river and corellas squawk and squabble in the trees. I’m almost out of earshot of the music and the unique peace that comes from solitude by water flows over me.
Then back through the uniformed ones, a few more nods and Phil’s behind the small bar in a room whose walls are tributes to the history and story of this place. There’re two draughts on tap: Overland Corner Gold, brewed specially for the pub down at Yenda near Griffith, Carlton Draught and there’s cider. We get onto the more recent story of this place. It remained closed from 1897 until the National Trust of South Australia bought it in 1965 and then re-opened it as a licensed tourist destination and seven years ago Phil and Lenske took over the lease. Things become quieter as the bikers gravitate back to their camp and their music ramps up so we head out to a free table in the garden. The riders base themselves near the pub so they can use the toilets which are open all night and when they leave, the rubbish bins’ll be packed with rum and whisky bottles they’ve brought in with them rather than buying them here.
Meals done, Lenske joins us and they tell of the ‘bone diviner’ a few years back who detected submerged human bones all over the surrounding hills. We talk of the disappearance of the local indigenous people and claims of many women vanishing. They tell of legends of the more recent role of the local kangaroo mincing works in some underworld disappearances. And they talk of the work involved in running a place like this.
At the start of 2017 they decided to
scrupulously record their work time and their expenses. At the end of December they tallied it all up. Over the year they each averaged a net per hour income of $4.50. All the new houses up on the overlooking ridge belong to people from ‘away’, who
visit every so often and so provide little foundation for their business. Instead they have to rely on travellers, and they relish riders whether solo or in groups no matter how large who spend money and “don’t steal the dunny paper” like
another segment of the visitors. It seems ages since my morning forage through the Napper Ruins at Lake Bonney and in the placid silences in our chat I hope that down the track I won’t be visiting this fascinating and unique place and
recalling when it too was once a pub.
* The ‘Y’ stood for ‘Yummy’ apparently so I can only deduce they were very old shirts.
(This is a highly abridged version
of a chapter from my next book, “Drinking the Rivers” to be published by New Holland in mid 2020. To reserve your signed pre-release copy just email (no payment at this stage) nothingbutthepub@gmail.com with the book title as the subject.) D
Take a tent
Less than three hours of easy riding from Adelaide via the most direct routes and only another 30 minutes if you decide to head west to Murray Bridge and then follow the river upstream, this pub is a perfect overnighter for those wanting to escape the City of Churches for an overnighter.
The lack of rooms may be a drawback to some but the camping down by the river is simply unbeatable. (Be aware of river heights and upstream rainfall!)
The hosts are fully across the rich history of this landmark establishment and anyone interested in the stories of pubs will fully enjoy their time here.
You can lock up your bike if you bring a chain to fasten it to one of the river gums and you can put it undercover if you throw a branch over it. There’s no showers but the billion litre bath was easily accessible and was flowing only gently and I guessed the temp at around 19 degrees!
The food options aren’t overly diverse and special dietary needs could be better catered for but the prices are very reasonable and the helpings generous.
This is one of the very best camping pubs I’ve come across. It’s become a mandatory stop every time I’m anywhere close to the nor-west bend where the mighty Murray finally ends its journey west and turns south for its run to the coast.
The good people running this place deserve more than four bucks an hour. Get some ride buds, don’t pack cheap booze from a major chain, and head out here. It’ll be one corner you’ll be glad you’ve turned! Four helmets and, with the value rating based only on food and drink in the absence of accommodation rated at 120. Unique character? Off the scale!
BMW F 750 GS
Escarpment loop
When you turn a motorcycle’s handlebar so that the front wheel is at right angles to the frame, you create a figure that is not entirely stable. When subsequently your boot slips on the heap of loose gravel on which you have foolishly stopped, there is a good chance that said motorcycle will seek to take on a horizontal position. After I’d picked it up again – back to the bike, handlebar turned towards you, take the strain on your legs etc – my BMW F 750 GS showed only one bit of damage. The end of the front brake lever had broken off.
Good design there; you’ll always prefer to have that pre-notched nubbin go than to lose the entire lever. It hardly makes any difference. And when, like me, you’re on a forestry road in the upper Styx State Forest, you learn to value this. But how, I hear you ask, did I find myself in the Styx in the first place? I am, after all, not dead. Close, but no cigar…
You know how it is when you collect sets of something: one particular item, usually not one of the more difficult ones to find, eludes you. You might have all of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s movies, but somehow you’ve never managed to pick up a copy of “Twins”… yes, bizarre as it might seem, the Arnie connection does make sense, at least to me, because I’ve just been to the official Arnold Schwarzenegger Museum. But more of that at another time.
In Australia, one of the sets worth collecting if you’re a motorcyclist is the complete range of ranges; every one of the roads that crosses the escarpment of the Great Dividing Range. I don’t think I’m boasting when I say that I have done that, on every route that admits motorized travel. Except for one.
Oddly, it is – or was - one of the more accessible ones from my home in Sydney, namely the Kempsey-Armidale road. Heaven knows why I had never tackled it, when I went to considerable trouble a few years ago to make my way up the coast to Grafton to tackle the relatively little-known Old Glen Innes Road to – you peeked! - Glen
Innes. This is a lovely road, by the way, and I recommend it highly if you’re not concerned about a bit of gravel and possibly mud. Possibly the more southerly road had missed out because there are terrific alternatives to both north and south. Even if you do start off on this road from Kempsey, there’s a turnoff to The Pub With No Beer that’s hard to go past.
Anyway, BMW Australia had an example of ‘my’ current Beemer available (not because I own one but because I’d like to), the F 750 GS. I have enjoyed every variation of this bike; in fact, the F 700 GS was my preferred bike on overseas tours. So an opportunity to sample the latest incarnation was hard to pass up. The bike had all the goodies fitted to it, and I just replaced the top box with my camera case before taking off.
A short gravel run through the Upper Colo just to get used to the bike’s behavior on gravel took me onto the Putty Road and then out to the coast at Bulahdelah to have lunch and subsequently sample highway running. I’m pleased to report that the bike handles the Superslab absolutely competently with its 19 inch front wheel and non-adjustable forks. Say what you like about the Africa Twin with its 21 incher, but it just isn’t happy on the road at speed or in tight corners. It was still early and I was having a good time, so I zipped out to Long Flat and back on the Oxley Highway. I’m happy to report that all is in order; the restaurant at the Travelers Rest Hotel was closed as it has been every time I’ve stopped in here for the last four or five decades. The pub’s ginger cat, however, was keen to show off its yoga moves.
The night at the City Centre Motel in Kempsey was restful enough after I’d undertaken some exercise to find a bottle shop – the onsite Chinese restaurant at the motel is not licensed [is there still such a thing? – the sub] and the instructions took me well out of my way into a spooky tangle of parking lots. I guess the bottle of Mornington Peninsula rosé helped in its own way.
Breakfast with quite decent coffee
in the main street – actually in a café beside the main street – saw me powering up River Street to find the Armidale Road. I actually knew this road as far as the Millbank turnoff, having made it a habit some years ago to visit the pub mentioned above. The road stays in pretty good condition as it follows the Macleay River upstream, and to my surprise the corners going into and coming out of Bellbrook were really fun.
The view out over the river reminded me of Streeton’s ‘Purple Noon’s Transparent Might’, one of the few paintings that manages to show an Australian landscape in a European style that leaves it looking absolutely Australian. Beautiful.
Soon after the road went to gravel on the way to Comara, I was reminded by a sign that this is not just the plain old Kempsey-Armidale Road, this is in fact the Slim Dusty Way. Sorry Slim, love yer work mate. Slim’s track continues as a pretty standard Australian gravel road, first a farm road before it morphs into the forestry version.
We’re getting close to where you came in, now. At the Point Lookout turnoff from what was now the KempseyArmidale Forest Way (sorry, Slim, lost you somewhere there) I stopped to take a photo of the sign and that was where I dropped the bike. That’ll teach me to put the bike on the stand and get off to take my snaps.
Twenty kilometres or so later I was back on tar, on the Waterfall Way near Wollomombi. The way home was pretty prerdictable – Ebor, Dorrigo (why is there still nowhere to get a decent lunch in Dorrigo apart from the pub?), down to Bellingen on the severely restricted descent (one day they’ll finish it and it will once again be glorious), off to the left before Thora and along the northern side of the river to Bellingen, the Bowraville road to Macksville and then… well, I had a bit of time to spare once again, so I turned off for Scotts Head, Grassy Head and Stuart Point, all really nice little communities apparently built around capacious caravan parks.
The only trouble with loitering along
the way is that you then find you might just be a bit too late to tackle the next gravel – and more likely sand – bit of the ride. I am not a keen sand rider, especially in the gathering darkness, so I put off my planned ride from Crescent Head via Point Plomer to Port Macquarie’s North Shore and took the tar instead.
The next day I rode home, via Wauchope, Comboyne, Wingham and Krambach before returning to the Superslab at Nabiac. I had a bit of spare time so I took the Wootton Way (ave, Ken) and turned off to take a look at the Grandis, the tallest tree in NSW. Read my opinions on these landmarks elsewhere in this or another issue of the weighty tome you hold in your hands.
The technicalities of the BMW F 750 GS have been reviewed in another issue, by someone more competent to do so than I. I’ll just leave you with one more comment, then: if I could afford one and if Mrs Bear would let me have another bike I’d buy one of these.
Like a shot. D
Cafe directory
INLINE4 CAFE
Best café and fully licensed restaurant on the way to Philip Island Circuit I Vista Place, Cape Woolamai Philip Island, Victoria 0427 475 681
BENZINA CANTINA
Fab food and coffee on the Southbank. Bikes and noise for the petrolhead 84 High Street, Preston Victoria 03 9480 0444
THE SHAGGY COW
Expectational coffee and food stop in the Southern Highlands 112 Main St Mittagong 02 4872 2966
YORK LANE
City Laneway cafe/bar run by the original Ducati riding ace racer. York Lane behind Clarence St 02 9299 1676
JERRY’S GOURMET
KITCHEN & CAFE
A great spot to meet up on the way north 693/695 George Downes Dr, Kulnura NSW 02 4376 1166
MOTO CAFE
Fab place to stop if you are heading down the Mornington Pennisula 611 Nepean Highway, Carrum Downs VIC
RISING SUN WORKSHOP
You really do get to mix coffee, food and bikes in one hip place 1C Whately St Newtown, NSW 02 9550 3891
ROADIES CAFE
Well known pitstop for those travelling through Gloucester 77 Church Street, Gloucester New South Wales 2422 02 6558 2772
ROUGE MOTORCYCLES
A well known fi ve-star stop for Perth people U5 4 Arrigo Street, Wangara Western Australia 6065 08 9309 2767
N/A (not visited)
PITSTOP AT MT MEE CAFE
A great ride to a beautiful location north of Brisbane 2070a Mt Mee Rd, Ocean View, Queensland 07 342536520
GREY GUMS CAFÉ
Really the Centre of the Universe if you are travelling up The Putty 8679 Putty Road, Putty NSW 02 6579 7015
Surfside
MOTORCYCLE GARAGE
Surfside Motorcycle Garage
WE ALL SEEM to have a favourite café that we like to frequent; whether that’s by motorcycle or not doesn’t seem to really matter. Since we’re motorcyclists, of course, it’s better if we have a favourite café that’s motorcycle friendly and even better still – motorcycle themed! Roll the wave into Surfside Motorcycle
Garage located at 42 Winbourne Rd, Brookvale NSW and pull up to the ample amount of motorcycle parking. Slide inside to the café at the front and order some delicious food. On our visit Ralph had the amazing Minestrone Soup, which is a family secret recipe. I had a traditional (chicken) burger. I also sampled the fine coffee and Ralph had a juice.
4. Chips are served in a cage so they can’t get away.
5. They work on Turbos, including The Bear’s 750.
6. Plenty of parking among the display bikes out front.
7. A picture of a cappuccino just in case you don’t know.
8. Can that really be… yes, it’s an MV California.
9. One of the displays – a rare cutaway engine.
Once you’ve finished up in the café, surf on out the back to look at the amazing array of classic machinery on display and being worked on in the workshop. If you need work done on your motorcycle, Surfside will organise that for you, and if you want a restoration on that classic bike that’s gathering dust in the garage, they can do that too.
Every couple of months Surfside holds show ‘n’ shine events on varying themes, the latest being an American day. Next up in Sept is the Japanese day.
Surfside is also a Royal Enfield dealer, so you can get in for a red hot deal. Check out the website or Facebook (search ‘Surfside Motorcycle Garage’) page to keep up to date with all that’s
going on at www.surfside.net.au . This leads me into you telling us a bit about your favourite café. It doesn’t have to be a motorcycle café like Surfside but as long as you really like it and they do great food and coffee, tell us about it! You can also win a prize each month. Get to it, email your nomination to contactus@ ausmotorcyclist.com.au . D
1. The café theme is carried through beautifully.
2. Less beautiful, but obviously happy, is Ralph.
3. There’s a Royal Enfield dealership out back.
Food TECHNICAL
A hydrogen future?
FOR THOUGHT
compiled by STUaRT
HeRe’s sOMe FOOd for thought of our future and searching for fossil fuel replacement… I personally don’t see current electric vehicles becoming mainstream unless you can pull into a service station and recharge or replace a battery within a few minutes – like the time it takes refuelling your vehicle now. I see an alternate fuel that can utilise the current infrastructure, albeit modified to suit as the future of
transportation power. Sure, I see current electric vehicles will be in there somewhere but not with electricity as the mainstream ‘fuel’. Though often mistaken for an energy source, hydrogen is actually an artificial fuel - like gasoline, that can be used to transport and store energy. Although it can be separated from fossil fuels, its long-term promise lies in its ability to be separated from water through electrolysis, using solar power or other forms of
renewable energy. Its most publicised application is in transportation: the hydrogen gas is stored in an on-board tank until combined with oxygen in a fuel cell, where the electrolysis process is essentially reversed, releasing chemical energy via an electrical charge. This electricity can then be used to power electric motors in cars, buses, motorcycles, boats, and other vehicles.
The following extract is taken from the yachting industry where
they are well advanced in the world of hydrogen power and is rather interesting reading – so long as you can get the gist of the translation...
“The future is one common technology platform for green mobility between cars, bikes airplanes and boats. The yachting industry will soon be greener than the car industry thanks to the hydrogen revolution. This is the main messages to the industry that come from an event held in Monaco recently.
The meeting was the perfect opportunity to highlight and put into practice solutions for sustainable yachting, the result of years of Research & Development. Organised in partnership with the International Powerboating Federation (UIM) and Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, the 6th edition of a competition that is unique in the world and which attracted 34 teams (14 nationalities) offers a glimpse of the future in which everyone are winners: researchers, academics, engineering students, and professionals working in the yachting and energy sectors. All are committed to developing and testing credible alternatives to fossil fuels to shape the future of propulsion for the boats of tomorrow.
An incubator that puts the spotlight on developments taking place, the Monaco Solar & Energy Boat Challenge 2019 is very much in line with the vision of Yacht Club de Monaco President HSH Prince Albert II, who came to meet exhibitors and encourage contestants: “Training and educating our young people, their development, creativity, awareness and involvement are the guarantors of a better future (...). Let us give them a chance, give them all the tools
1. Honda filed a patent for a hydrogen motorcycle back in 2017
2. The ability to utilise current infrastructure
they need to succeed and above all put our trust in them.”
One common technology platform
Besides the competitions and the exhibition of new powertrain solutions, a very interesting part of the event has been represented by the technical presentations by leading experts of the field and the Tech Talks by each team to present the highlights of their racing boat.
The experts focused their attention on two main topics:
• Sustainable management and development within the maritime environment
• Sustainability and energy efficiency – current trends and future developments in the yachting industry.
The technical sessions were concluded by the third UIM International Workshop on nautical sports and the environment organized by the International Powerboating Association. President Raffaele Chiulli said: “We are promoting the creation of a common platform for green motorsport to unite the efforts of all disciplines: cars, bikes, airplanes and powerboating. On one side everyone would benefit from the synergies, on the other we believe that the champions of each discipline are the best ambassadors to spread the messages and values of sustainability. We’ll do everything in our power to change the mindset.”
Lucas Di Grassi, ABB Formula E World Champion, said: “I’m super proud to see the Yacht Club de Monaco is doing this electric and solar boat challenge. Good luck, I’ll be watching and hopefully drive one of these boats.”
Economy of scale and environmental challenges
The event in Monaco was an excellent opportunity to present many different innovations and discuss the advantages and the difficulties of the maritime industry.
Ugo Bertelli, former admiral of the Italian Navy and team leader
of Blu.e Matrix, thinks that the nautical industry is far from real innovation at industrial level and the main reason are low volumes and low standardization: “Even if Italy is a world leader, very few shipyards are really innovative beyond design and interiors. All major changes in powertrain come from the automotive research. Renault is engineering dashboards for boats for instance.”
For professor Paolo Schito, Engineering Faculty of Milan, another difficulty comes from the marine environment: “No boat can leverage energy recovery since there is no braking at sea and propulsion requires much more effort in the water than on the road.” Despite this, the Politecnico participated with the Polimi racing boat in the Offshore Class.
Last but not least, pessimists see the point of reliability and safety. Whereas a failure or a low battery can be coped with on an urban road, at sea you better go with long time tested and simple systems. As experienced sailor say: “What is not there, does not break.”
The hydrogen revoluTion
But there is another perspective, more in line with the spirit of the Solar & Energy Boat Challenge. Dario Calzavara leads a research company called Terra Modena, worked with Ferrari before turning to yachting and engineered the new zero-emission Jury Boat of the Yacht Club de Monaco: “We are at a cornerstone which will lead us to a revolution. The technology to use hydrogen at sea is ready and in the next decade the nautical industry will outbeat the car industry. The Anvera Electric Boat has proven to be fast and with already a great autonomy for a tender or a chase boat, Vita Power is a prestigious boat, other shipyards are coming. A second point to consider is that there is dramatic difference between cruising in open sea and closed waters: for European rivers and lakes the sustainable mobility is reality. Third, nobody should underestimate the powering infrastructures: Vita’s project to equip
the whole Cote d’Azur with recharging columns will give a boost to electric boat diffusion.”
Marco Casiraghi, the man behind the event, agrees: “It’s more a question of attitude. We already have robust, easy and convenient technologies to reduce environmental costs. If they are not applied two reasons are to blame: lack of knowledge and business as usual. To change this we need a strong communication towards the final client so that they become more demanding towards the industry.”
A virtuous combination of efforts
On one side there are large organizations like Energy Observer and SBM Offshore are implementing olistic approaches which include infrastructures, processes, logistic.
Jeremie Laguarrigue, CEO of Energy Observer and Technical Advisor to the YCM for sustainable yachting, points out “that 90% of all goods is transported by boat and changing the way ships are moved would have a significant impact on the environment.”
On the other side, the enthusiasm of hundred of students. Like the Formula SAE is the passionate and creative meeting for the young researchers in the car sector, the MCSEBC is the unique opportunity for students in the boating.
Bernard D’Alessandri, Secretary General of YCM, says: “Watching these young men and girls working hard until late at night, fighting for fixing the last screw and be proud when putting their boat into the water is something which fills your heart and makes you believe that a sustainable future can be at hand. We are looking forward to the next edition, from June 30 to July 4, when for the first time we will also have a team from China.”
I hope you got the gist of this article. We need to think beyond current electric vehicles and look for an alternative fuel as the replacement for the fuel we know now. What are your thoughts of what might be the fuel of the future? Let us know – contactus@ ausmotorcyclist.com.au D
CHANGE UP
The LaSt Month has seen a bit of a change up for our long term fleet. The Ducati Scrambler 1100 is gone, replaced by the sweet Ducati Supersport. We’ve also got a Peugeot Django 150 which is very ‘metro’ for riding around the city. But first off, let’s continue with the amazing Z900 RS.
KawasaKi Z900 Rs New heels
Continuing on with the ‘blacked out’ theme on the Z900 RS, the great folk at Motorrad Garage got more money in their pockets with the purchase of some SW Motech billet heel guards. Priced at $192 and looking super stylish the guards come with new mounting hardware and instructions. They took all of two minutes to fit. Visit www.motorradgarage.com.au
We’ve also got a set of the new Pirelli Angel GT II tyres to fit to the RS and give them a whirl. Look for the review in an upcoming issue. SW
Ducati supeRspoRt smooth moves
When I called Ducati to ask them whether the Scrambler 1100 was ready after its service, they told me it had been sold! I was sad to see it go but at the same time I wondered what other bike in their range could be a good replacement for a while. The Supersport model came to mind as I really liked the smooth lines and design of the bike. Living with it would also give me a proper appraisal of the bike as my initial thoughts from the launch some time ago left me feeling a little flat about it. That was until I rode this fresh out of the crate matt grey beauty. After I got off the bike I was straight onto Ducati asking what had been done to the power and torque, whether the exhaust had been changed and all sorts of questions - it feels like a totally different bike to the one I rode originally. Ducati informed me no power or torque figures are different so I can only assume the exhaust valve or some refuelling has been changed from the original model. The bike is grunty and really nice to ride. The price has also been changed to $17,790 ride away for this, the base model. What a bargain! Let’s see what my thoughts are next month… SW
peugeot Django 150 UNchaiNed
This is not the ‘Django’ you’re thinking of. The Quentin Tarantino film “Django Unchained” was extremely violent and confronting – a masterpiece, but if you’re thinking, “how the hell does that relate to the
Peugeot”, well, the one word that relates here is, “masterpiece”. You might think that Vespa has the scooter world wrapped around its little finger but new player, Peugeot Motocycles (yes, that’s how they spell it) has come in full bore with models like the Django 150. A very stylish and metro looking scoot that is great to ride. It does all you could ask of it and of course it has all the usual scooter features like the shopping hook. We’ve got the Django for a little while and will be blasting around on it in the city and for some commuting. See what we think about living with it next month. SW
Royal enfielD 650 inteRceptoR Packed oUt
Our 650 got the Ventura treatment within the last month and not just any Ventura bag but their new EVO 60! Measuring approximately 420mm high (470mm expanded) x 450mm wide x 430mm deep, the EVO-60 is the latest addition to the EVO series of the Ventura Bike-Pack system. This stylish 60-litre pack, is the ultimate. Its semi-solid base, the EVO-60 provides a sturdy packing solution. It has all the capacity to fulfil your needs, whether you are heading away for a couple of days or taking on a major expedition. The pack slips easily onto Ventura’s highly adaptable EVO-rack system, which is available for the 650 range and clips on with two fast release buckles. See your local bike shop to have enough space to pack the kitchen sink. www.kenma.com.au SW D
KAWASAKI Z900 A4
Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’ WORDS/PHOTOS StUA R t
BIG ProGreSS haS been made within the last month, the Z900 A4 is a roller! The last
few pieces needed to fit the forks into the triple clamps with the headlight brackets, associated spacers, lower
triple clamp trim, rear sprocket and swingarm grease nipple were all ready to fit so a great day was spent at D
Moto Motorcycle Engineering where I got the Z900 on its wheels. In the leadup to getting the A4 to this stage I’ve been busy with anything and everything else, as in lapping in the intake valves, getting new exhaust valves, as the ones I had were bent (no doubt from over revving), shimming the cams, and washing the engine cases – three times to make sure no grit from vapour blasting is present when Shaun and I start building the bottom end. The worst thing you could want is to go to all this work and have grit grind its way through the internals of the engine. I’ve seen it before where people haven’t washed the cases properly and it makes a right mess. One thing you’ll notice in the pics is that I haven’t yet fitted the front discs. I’m waiting on the tab washers to arrive but the main focus of the next month is getting the bottom end together and fitted into the frame. I’ll put the barrels, pistons and head on with the bottom end fitted up. The next major task from getting
the engine in is going to be restoring the airbox I bought. It is good but a little ‘rough around the edges’ if you like. The carbs are also going to be among the most difficult things to get back to being 101%. They had seized from lack of use all these years and when something like that takes days of getting them apart, you know they’re going to be a right pain in the backside to rebuild. I will need all new carb kits and hopefully the slides will be okay, which they look to be. Again, I will be using Craig at Classic Wet Blast to make the carb bodies and associated parts look simply stunning and I’ll rezinc plate some of the parts.
One (well, they consist of two) item that arrived to complete the roller was a set of amazing Ikon shocks. Ikon are leaders in the field of classic suspension and when they sent me a pair of the SP8 7610 Series shocks I was drooling all over them. The 7610 Series features four position externally adjustable rebound with just a finger touch, spring seat adjustable (preload) in three positions, progressive spring,
chrome finished body and they’re rebuildable. Not only are the Ikon SP8 shocks modern, adjustable and finished to a concourse finish they also replicate what was fitted originally and as I’d fitted Ikon fork springs it was a given that I match them with the Ikon shocks. Ikon makes shocks and fork springs for a wide variety of motorcycles I strongly suggest you check them out and fit them to your motorcycle, you feel the supreme difference Ikon make to your ride. Visit www.ikonsuspension.com to view the full range.
The restoration of this classic beauty is coming along at a steady pace I reckon. I’d like it to be faster but as I’m basically putting new everything in this bike the resto kitty takes a hammering. From what I’ve done so far I reckon all the hard work is going to be worth the finished product. Anyone that has seen what it’s turned into so far are simply blown away with how good it is. If you want to buy the Z900 A4 once it’s done you better email now to get ‘on the list’. D
DucaTi 950 Hypermotard
Taming the wild WORDS stuart PHOTOS r alph/Ducati
Take a wild bucking bronco and massage it with love and kindness and the result is the new Ducati Hypermotard 950. Gone is the insanely wild ride of the Hypermotard of a few years ago, which has always been an outlier in the motorcycle world: part sport bike, part supermoto, and all wild fun. The new 950 is now a bike that can be ridden sanely but underneath it will still give you a wild ride if you give it a kick – just like a wild bronco.
The 2019 Ducati Hypermotard 950 is all-new and not a slightly tweaked version of the 939 previous model. It feels new compared to the outgoing when riding and looking at it; the only thing Ducati retained is the trellis frame, which has been given slightly thinner tubing to save some weight. All else, from the engine to suspension to ergonomics, is new and improved from both comfort and performance perspectives.
Sharper styling and revised ergonomics - a wider handlebar, a slimmer fuel tank, and a narrower seat do keep the latestgeneration Hypermotard in line with the wild-and-woolly original. Engine capacity is the same 937cc as last year’s model, the Testastretta 11° engine has a new exhaust cam, higher compression, larger throttle bodies, and reworked exhaust to give more power. 45mm Marzocchi
spoke wheels (pinched from the Panigale), and brake discs with aluminium flanges shed additional mass. Ergonomics were tweaked, highlighted by the handlebar that is flatter. Ducati state seven degrees compared to the Hypermotard 939. The 950 handlebar is more reminiscent of dirt bikes than ever (just more comfortable if that makes sense), providing much quicker steering inputs with less effort. This adds to overall more comfortable ergonomics with a far better seat and a slimmer gastank/seat junction.
Equipped with a sophisticated sixaxis Bosch Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) featuring traction/wheelie control and cornering ABS the 950 has the tech to go with the go. You can tame the bronco or let it run wild – your choice.
The Hypermotard’s revised 937cc Testastretta 11° L-twin engine has a new torque curve that makes all the difference. Over 80 percent of the torque is available from 3000 to 9500rpm (peaking at 7250rpm). Breaking it down further, 82 percent of the torque is available at 3000rpm, and 88 percent from 5500 to 9500rpm. It’s all about smoothness for optimal throttle control, and the Hypermotard 950’s smooth ‘powerband’ is ideal for road riding. You don’t have to do much shifting; just let the engine do its thing. This linear torque curve also provides snappy power when needed in sport mode, where the throttle
response is highest.
The Hypermotard 950 remains stable during cornering and feels far more stable than the previous model. This shows the Trellis frame offers the perfect amount of flex and rigidity, and this is immediately evident on the new Hypermotard.
model. This
SPECS
DUCATI HYPERMOTARD 950
PRICE: $20,790 (plus on-road charges)
WARRANTY: Two years, unlimited distance
Like the previous generation Hypermotards, wheelies are not a problem. Someone good at doing wheelies can control this thing for as long as needed, but just remember you’re more than likely taking a lighter to your licence.
The Hypermotard 950 is upgraded with a 4.3-inch TFT dash that is intuitively easy to figure out. Ducati dashes were always a bit hard to navigate, but that changed with the Panigale V4’s new dash. The V4’s dash design has been carried over to the Hypermotard 950 and the all-new Multistrada 1260 Enduro. The TFT dash can be accessorised with the Ducati Multimedia System (DMS), which connects the dash to your phone via Bluetooth. The DMS will display incoming calls, music tracks, or text messages.
We have a barrister friend of the magazine and after seeing the Hypermotard 950 he suggested the following – if you decide to buy the Hypermotard 950, a “Get Out of Gaol Free” card is not among the many available factory accessories/options. The 2019 Ducati Hypermotard 950 is a win/win for the brand’s fans, whether for daily commuting, hooliganism, or some supermoto racing on shorter tracks. Just remember – you wheelie at your own risk! D
SERVICING INTERVALS: Every 15,000km or 12 months
ENGINE: Liquid-cooled L-twin cylinder, 4-stroke, Desmodromic, 4 valves per cylinder
BRAKES: Front, twin 320mm discs with four-piston radial mount cornering ABS calipers. Rear, 245mm disc, two-piston cornering ABS caliper.
FUEL CONSUMPTION: 6.77 litres per 100km, premium unleaded
THEORETICAL RANGE: 214km
COLOURS: Ducati Red
VERDICT: TAMING THE WILD
HOOKING THE
Softails
“IHeaRd SOMeBOdY
sayin’ ‘The older the grape, the sweeter the wine…’" sang Janis Joplin, and she was right about more than just wine. Take a look at the brilliant bikes being built today by the old-established motorcycle manufacturers – BMW, Indian, Triumph, Royal Enfield… and of course Harley-Davidson.
Harley-Davidson? What has the Motor Company, long dismissed as flogging old technology for new money, done to be included there?
Thanks to a recent opportunity to ride the new Softail range at Sydney
Motorsport Park – yes, on the track – I can confidently write that today the Motor Company makes the best motorcycles it ever has. Funnily enough, they wear a badge that has not inspired me much in the past. There was a time, before the recent complete overhaul and redesign, when Softails were at the bottom of my list of desirable Harleys.
As it turns out, the name’s the same but the bikes are very different indeed. I know that sports bike riders will turn away, making that disgusted face they do so well, but I’m here to tell you that the bikes are heaps of fun to throw
around. Well, almost all of them are. The Breakout with its 21 inch front wheel is a reminder of the old days. It does not want to tip into corners at any reasonable speed; it has its own mind. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my bikes to have a mind of their own. Mine might not be much chop, but it’s the one that’s gonna be in charge. But what is so remarkable is that the other bikes in the range handle so well. I had a great time. I hope to take some of these machines out on longer rides in the real world, where I expect my initial impression to be confirmed. Softails? Love ‘em. Sweet wine indeed. D
GUIDED MOTORCYCLE tours are more popular than ever, with companies offering trips all over the world. We asked top tour guide Bob Rees from BMW’s Motorrad Tours what it takes to be a tour leader and how he goes the extra distance to look after his riders.
Bob Rees is a retired fireman from the UK, now working as a motorcycle tour leader for BMW’s official UK travel partner, Motorrad Tours. He spends his days looking after groups of customers on motorcycle tours around the world. This means taking care of border crossings, accommodation and meals,
all the while being on hand to give advice, support and encouragement to the riders. The diary entry here is from day two of the Motorrad Tours Alaska and the Canadian Rockies trip, traveling 305 kilometres from the town of Tok to Dawson city over the Top of the World Highway.
QHow and when did you get into biking?
My father was a motorcyclist; as a teenage boy listening to all his stories about riding bikes I knew I wanted to ride too. When I was sixteen, I got a Honda SS50 moped, took my test and
Bob Rees.You can’t tell how hard he works, can you?
Who is Motorrad Tours?
Motorrad Tours is an Official Travel Partner of BMW Motorrad. We operate a range of motorcycle tours throughout Europe as well as tours in Africa, the Americas and Asia. You are welcome to ride any make of bike on our tours, but we always ride BMWs. We provide you with route guidance notes, maps and GPS routes so you can choose to ride independently at your pace, stopping to see what you want to see when you want to. You are always welcome to ride with the Tour Leader who will set a leave time each day so you can join them. You can ride with them every day or swap and change what you want to do each day. You have the freedom to choose.
bikes became my primary form of transport from then until late in my twenties.
QWhat was the biggest surprise when you first started the job?
The biggest surprise was the sheer amount of work involved in the preparation and planning phase before going on a tour. It is literally days of work – checking the routes through against the route notes to familiarise myself. I always make contact with the customers before the trip, so I can answer any questions and concerns on a one-to-one basis.
QWhich particular skills make it easier to do your job?
People management and communication come right at the top of that list. Tour leading is a very sociable occupation, getting to know people and understanding them lets you satisfy their needs better on tour; everyone has more fun if they are happy. To be honest, the bit of the job that I enjoy the most is meeting such a wide variety of people from such diverse backgrounds.
QWhat is the best biking destination you have been to?
Patagonia. The Argentinian Lake District is just stunningly beautiful, literally every bend you come around, it’s just wow. It’s Switzerland on steroids.
QWhat are the most challenging things about the job?
That’s got to be managing the unexpected events. In particular dealing with a serious incident, in a remote location and making sure you get the best possible outcome for all involved.
1. Another look at Chicken – where are the ptarmigans?
2. Buildings are mostly wood - there’s plenty of it.
3. Just bear with us… Photo Stewart Cassier
A typic A l d Ay in the life of A Motorr A d t ours tour le A der:
6:15am
Get up, get myself sorted out, get all my kit packed on the bike so I’m ready to go. It’s the second day of the tour, and our first proper day of dirt-road; I know I have a couple of riders nervous about the gravel, so I’m thinking about them, making sure I keep them reassured and happy. I pop outside and have a visual check of all the bikes, make sure the tyres are good, any chains are adjusted, check for any oil leaks and any things amiss on the bike. If there’s a fault with a hire bike, I get it sorted, if it’s a customer’s own bike, I let them know and help them get it fixed. One of the customers reported an ABS light showing on his bike, I checked and cleared it the night before, but it’s in my mind and I re-check the sensors and the light again.
7:30am
At half seven, I meet up with the customers and take them for a fabulous full American breakfast at Fast Eddy’s diner, adjacent to the cabins we stayed in. The number of questions at breakfast is always a good indicator of how the riders are feeling about the day, lots of questions this morning suggest that there are a few nerves about the gravel, so I make sure to give those riders plenty of friendly advice and make a plan for people to take a steadier ride with me if they wish. Normally breakfast is prepaid, but here is an exception so I sort the bill myself. I check with customers that everything was good with the accommodation, that they slept ok and are all feeling well and ready. As breakfast wraps up, I remind them what time we are leaving.
8:30am
Back outside at the bikes, I take all the customers’ room keys to reception to save them the hassle. It’s still early on the trip, and people are still finding their feet, so I help out with loading up their bikes where required. I check everyone has their route notes and remind them where the suggested lunch and stops
are and so they have an understanding of the day. It’s always worth a spin round to make sure everyone has zeroed their odometers so the distance works for the day’s route notes. One of the customers is particularly nervous about riding on the gravel roads, having not done much off-road before, especially two-up. I chat with him and arrange for him to ride with me on the gravel and take things steady. I let the rest of the group know the plan and invite them to ride with me or at their own pace as they wish.
9:00am
Time to leave, lots of excitement about the ride ahead. I have a quick last check over my shoulder, make sure everyone who has opted to ride with me is there, get the nod from the customers and ride off, starting the day nice and easy. Again, this early on in the trip, I’m constantly scanning my mirrors, watching the riders behind me to get a feel for their pace, style and abilities, so I can match my riding to suit them best. We stop for numerous photo opportunities on the way; pull up, helmets off for a bit of a chat and to take some water on. Everyone is happy with the riding, no problems with the bikes so I make sure I get as many pictures of them as possible both riding and stationary as they rarely have a chance to get shots of themselves. This first 110 kilometres is sealed road, from Tok to Chicken, and we cruise at a nice easy pace for our first coffee stop and an early lunch.
11:00am
We arrive in Chicken for an early lunch and fuel up. After Chicken it’s a long run into Dawson City and there’s nothing between here and there along the ‘Top of the World’ highway. I make sure the customers stock up on snacks and water and fill my panniers too to make sure everyone is covered to see them through to around 3pm. Chicken is named after the ptarmigan that is found in the area, it just happened that the original settlers couldn’t agree on the spelling of ptarmigan, so opted for chicken instead. There are fewer than twenty official residents and
The Average Day – Takes Two and Three
We talk about the average day on a tour, but really, there is no such thing. Every day is different, filled with new challenges. Take the day described here for instance; on the same trip the previous year, the support truck got stuck with a paperwork issue at the border (and so became the last time we used a local support driver rather than our own staff), and while we were sorting that, the customers were partying late into the night in Diamond Tooth Gertie’s gambling hall. The year before that, we were treated to a biblical downpour, turning the gravel road from Chicken into a slippery, slimy challenge all the way to the Yukon; it took until 7:30pm to make it to the hotel. What will the road be like next year? Who knows, you’ll have to join us to find that out…
some shacks, but it’s a well-known meeting point for travelers, so we spend some time chatting to people passing through. One of the group is a mining engineer; he took a shine to the old mining equipment laying around and kept us entertained with explanations of how it all worked.
A couple of the riders want to go on ahead, so I run through the border crossing procedure for them and remind them to make sure they get their US exit stamped up correctly.
11:30am
We head out of Chicken, one rider pushes on ahead and the rest of the group ride with me as they find their feet on the gravel roads. Slowly as confidence builds, a few of the others head on at their own pace, meeting us at photo stops along the way. The nervous riders are coming on nicely, and I keep chatting and giving tips at
ahead of us. We pull up to a stop and he just stares me down, walks a couple of metres, then stares us down again and keeps doing so until he lumbers back into the bushes. It was incredible, a real highlight of the whole trip. I can’t help but feel for the other riders who must have only missed such an amazing sight by a few minutes.
the best place in the world to have an office. They ask lots of important questions like have you got any firearms and then they send you through. I help with the customers’ paperwork, making sure they all get their US exit documented out properly.
2:30pm
5. The road is fine, but it’s not this way when it’s been raining.
the stops. The photo opportunities are non-stop and the scenery is absolutely epic. At one point, cruising along with one couple at the back, a massive grizzly bear strolls out onto the road
2:00pm
After kilometres of dirt, the last part of the road to the Canadian border switches to pristine tarmac. The border crossing here is brilliant; it’s only open three months of the year and the officers are super relaxed and super friendly. Looking out at the views in either direction, you can see why; it’s
As we had agreed at lunch, we all meet up on the Canadian side of the border to get a team photo at the big Yukon sign. And now we’re in Canada. Perfect tarmac continues for another 150 metres or so and then it’s back to dirt. Now we’re on some of the best gravel riding of the day, long sweeping bends, hard-pack gravel, plenty of vision and all the riders are really
1. Once you’re used to riding on gravel it can be a lot of fun.
2. Overnight stop and breakfast diner.
3. Hold on a minute! The permafrost does not make a good foundation.
4. Getting familiar with the gravel.
enjoying themselves, really settling into it. The new to gravel riders are feeling like gravel gods, keeping pace with the others and allowing me to shoot ahead to take photos more often. A few riders have run out of snacks and drinks, so I
keep them topped up from my stash.
5:00pm
Black foxes keep running across the road in front of us, while eagles swoop overhead – it has been a good day for wildlife. I bring the tail of the group up and we meet at the ferry crossing over the Yukon river into Dawson City. It’s a five-minute crossing, I explain that VIP business class seating is available – just stay on your bike. A kilometre down
FOR
the road on the other side and we arrive at the hotel together with the support truck still a way behind. There’s no time for feeling relieved that everyone is in and safe; my brain is already running through the evening and tomorrow’s ride. We park up on the dirt road outside the hotel, a big beautiful western clapboard hotel with white trims and swinging saloon bar doors. There’s a real frontier feel to the place.
5:20pm
I nip into the hotel to ensure everything is ready for the customers, so they can check in. This is my chance to find out everything the customers could possibly want to know about the hotel – is the bar open, what time is breakfast, the WiFi code – so I can be the one point of contact for the whole group. The support driver arrives and we carry the excess bags from the truck across into the foyer. I find a suitable part of the hotel bar to meet for the briefing at 7pm and make sure all customers know where and when to meet.
6:00pm
With the customers either enjoying a post-ride beer or heading off for a shower, I’m now confirming details for any restaurants nearby and making arrangements for the team if they want
to eat together, individually, or do their own thing. For those who want to eat together with myself, I make a booking and sort out timings.
6:45pm
Steal ten minutes to dash to my room, unpack my bag, grab a quick shower and get back down to the briefing.
6:55pm
Back downstairs to meet and greet and check everyone is OK – any problems with them or the bikes or the rooms?
Then it’s into the briefing for the next day’s ride, explaining what to expect, the highlights, any areas of concern navigation-wise and stops along the way. People always want to know how long the day’s ride will be and how many kilometres. We agree a 9am leaving time in the morning, and make a plan of action for the night. As is the norm, I act as local bank for the few who haven’t yet got themselves any local currency.
Thankfully there are no bike issues to sort, so there’s time for a quick drink in the hotel bar with the group.
8:00pm
Head out for a meal. Although tonight’s meal isn’t part of the organized tour, for those customers who want to eat
as a group, I have a list of restaurant suggestions and arrange bookings, split bills, do as much of the legwork as I can. The customers want to experience the town, so we spend a lovely sunny evening wandering the streets of wonky old houses built on the permafrost. The customers find a vintage fire engine to show me, knowing my background, and I have to say, it puts a huge smile on my face.
10:00pm
When we get back to the bar, we get to see someone taking part in the Dawson City tradition of the Sourtoe cocktail. This involves drinking a shot garnished with a preserved, amputated human toe. The early revelers headed for bed and I stayed up with the night owls keeping them entertained at the bar.
11:30pm
Last customer heads to bed, time for me to get back to my room, pack all the kit ready for the morning and recap the route for the next day. I re-familiarise myself with names of places, route stops, tricky junctions, hotel and any borders. I also run through on Google Earth again. Most nights early on there are a couple of customer GPS issues to sort out, reloading maps and adjusting settings. D
On the ferry, the group looks forward to showers.
TOUR OPERATOR DIRECTORY
The guide to the stars
- The who’s who in the zoo of motorcycle travel worldwide is what you’ll fi nd here. These companies want to make your motorcycle travel the best it can be. We’ve travelled with many of them and know them all, so they come highly recommended. In alphabetical order, they are:
- Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Europe and Thailand www.imtbike.com tours@imtbike.com
MAVERIK MOTORCYCLE TOURS
Italy & Austria www.maverik.com.au 1300 661 772 sandro@maverik.com.au
PARADISE MOTORCYCLE TOURS – New Zealand & European Alps www.paradisemotorcycletours.co.nz
RIDE THE WORLD - Australia, India, South Africa, Vietnam, USA Adventure rides out of Las Vegas www.ridetheworld.com.au david@ridetheworld.com.au
SERENDIB MOTORCYCLING
ADVENTURES – Sri Lanka www.SerendibMotorcycling Adventures.com info@SerendibMotorcycling Adventures.com
SOUTH PACIFIC MOTORCYCLE TOURS – New Zealand www.motorbiketours.co.nz offi ce@motorbiketours.co.nz
WORLD ON WHEELS - Europe, Iceland, South America, India, Asia, Mexico, Africa & Himalaya www.worldonwheels.tours Adventure@WorldOnWheels.Tours
EVENT
THE 50TH ALPINE MOTORCYCLE RALLY
WORDS/PHOTOS ANDREW PERCY
ON THE QUEEN’S Birthday
long weekend in June 1969
Paul Giles, a stalwart member of the Willoughby and District MCC, held the first Alpine Motorcycle Rally at Yarrangobilly on the then unsealed Snowy Mountains Highway.
I first met Paul in early 1973 when I was posted to RAAF Base Richmond NSW. Paul was the owner of Hawkesbury Motorcycles in Richmond – a Honda dealership. Mind you I saw him sell BMWs, Laverdas and other makes from that business.
At the RAAF base I also met Bruce, another motorcyclist, and in 1974 we attended our first of many Alpine Rallies. The sealing of the Snowy Mountains Highway had been completed in late spring 1973 and as a consequence Paul moved the event to
the Goodradigbee River at Brindabella, east of Canberra.
My brother Malcolm was attending ANU in Canberra and before long he and his friend Adrian also started attending the rally. Though we always held on to our motorcycles, by the 1980s marriages, mortgages and children limited the time we could spend away from home and the rally slipped away from us.
Fast forward to January 2019 and the ‘International Island Classic’ at Phillip Island where we fell into conversation with Paul’s son Shawn Giles. Paul had sadly long since passed away. Shawn informed us the 50th may well be the last Alpine Motorcycle Rally if the current organiser Henning Jorgensen cannot find someone younger to take
it over. Discussion over food and wine followed and before the weekend had ended we decided to attend the 50th Alpine Motorcycle Rally.
Friday 7 June 2019: The four of us met at the Tallangatta Hotel late in the afternoon. This place does a roaring trade on the MotoGP weekend each October, but on this night we were the only guests. We had a pleasant evening, and toasted our good fortune at still being able to do this sort of thing. Adrian won the meat tray. Now – what to do with it? The young lady behind the bar wanted it, and eventually it was traded for bottles of Shiraz.
Next morning we breakfasted, packed and headed out on the Murray Valley Highway for Corryong. On our way the temperature dipped to 4C. At Corryong we refuelled the motorcycles and ourselves – a double shot flat white. It was outside the café I spied
1. Adrian, Malcolm, Andrew & Bruce. We estimate 185 years and 2.5M kms between us.
2. Thruxton 900 café racer
5. Thruxton 1200R
6. The Elliot Way
7. Russian humour?
8. Deflated
the unrestored late sixties Triumph Daytona being ridden to the rally. Ride ‘em; don’t hide ‘em.
We pressed on north to the Elliot Way and followed it up to Cabramurra. There were no brumbies to be seen, but we dodged their dung on the road. The road out to the Snowy Mountains Highway had been resealed and provided a spectacular ride not normally seen by Australian motorcyclists. On arrival we could see the rally was well attended and fi nding a good camping site was not a simple matter. Once we were set up I looked for any familiar faces (not many) and took the photographs here. By 9pm we had consumed all our wine and fruit cake, and so like responsible men of a certain age, we retired for the evening.
Next morning, after a filter coffee made on the old Trangia, we packed, bade our farewells, and rode out to Tumut for a proper breakfast. I believe someone has consented to take over this event, but at the time of writing there was nothing on the website, https:// alpinerally.webs.com/. Keep an eye on it, or email Henning: hpj333@gmail.com . D
JUMP STARTERS
A jump starter pack will give you power anywhere, anytime. It is one of the most important pieces of emergency kit you can carry with you. Whether you’re on an outback track or heading home late at night, a jumper starter will protect you if you’re stranded with a flat battery.
Our jump starters will start motorcycles, watercraft, ATV/ UTV, snowmobiles and petrol car engines up to 4.0L (300A Jump Starter) and up to a 6.0L AND 3.0L Diesel automotive engines (400A Jump Starter)
They will also charge your phone or tablet through the USB outlets and all have a built in LED light.
The jump starter pack comes in a carry case with a 220v wall charger, a 12v accessory plug for on bike charging, battery leads and a combination micro USB/lightening charging cable.
For further information on these and all our products, please check our website for details.
3. The road to Kiandra
4. Life can be hard in
the Snowy Mountians
Compass Expeditions Asian Overland Expedition Research Trip “MOst” words & Images MicK McDONal D
Readers of Australian Motorcyclist will probably be familiar with Compass Expeditions. It’s the Australian based, international motorcycle tour company that takes adventurers on epic rides like the 105-day Road of Bones –London to Magadan and 80-day Cairo to Cape Town Expeditions as well as shorter tours in Australia and other amazing parts of the world.
We thought it might be interesting for readers to hear about how we do
the planning and research for one of our massive rides. While it could be tempting to consult Google maps, buy some stunning photos from I-Stock and “Hey Presto” there’s a new tour, then hope like hell it all comes together, Compass Expeditions invests massively and thoroughly researches every ride, and of course it’s a great opportunity to get out on the road, so no one at Compass is complaining!
Our latest offering is a 90-day Asian
Overland Expedition that departs Singapore in February and will travel through Malaysia, Thailand, Myanmar, Laos into China then onto Tibet, visit Everest Basecamp and then cut back into China to continue on to Beijing. It is an epic journey by anybody’s standard.
This expedition started as most of our others have, in the imagination of Compass Expeditions founder, Mick McDonald. With over 11 years of experience in drafting, planning,
routing and organising the complex documentation, accommodation and logistics required for an undertaking of this scale, Mick is the man for the job.
Consider the time and effort it takes to arrange everything to safely guide and support up to 15 riders and 4 pillions, two crew members and a support vehicle through far flung and often remote parts of the world. Bikes have to be transported across oceans from numerous points of departure and returned again at the end of the tour; equipment is packed and sent months in advance; carnet, visa and permit research along with route planning starts literally years in advance.
However, one of the key steps in ensuring that an expedition of this magnitude is successful and delivers the remarkable experience that our riders expect and have signed on for, is the research trip, the “Recce”. This is our chance to solidify plans, find the best roads, most amazing sights and experiences, and confirm that the accommodation meets, if not exceeds, expectations.
Earlier this year Mick and our regular crew member and medic, Sarah Taylor embarked on the 80-day recce for the
Asian Overland Expedition. Collecting the Compass Hilux 4x4 which had been shipped to Singapore weeks earlier, they took in the sights of the city, downed a Singapore Sling or two and hit the road. Mick and Sarah’s weekly reports from the road were comprehensive but space will only allow for us to give you snippets of what they experienced and what is in store for the Asian Overland riders.
A lifetime of travelling, leading tours and driving trucks – always on the move - had not dulled the excitement and nervous anticipation as the plane descended from the clouds and touched down at Singapore’s Changi Airport. After two years of route planning, talking to fixers, researching hotels online and most importantly trying to find an amazing route, we were at the pointy end of our always lengthy new tour research process.
First things first, an iconic Singapore Sling at the equally iconic Raffles Hotel then Sarah and I were on our way. Our plan was to drive every kilometre of the Asian Overland route, stay in every hotel, see every site and experience every excursion. Only then could we confidently offer this ride to our clients.
We left Singapore and entered Malaysia, visiting the wonderful seaside town of Melaka before driving into the surprising cool highlands, a lush green hideaway in the misty cool mountains of Malaysia and more surprisingly home to Kellies Castle, built by a Scottish rubber baron! Back to the coastline and the UNESCO listed old town of Penang
No trip to SE Asia would be complete without a visit to see some orangutans and we were thrilled to visit a conservancy on a remote island where injured or orphaned orangutans were prepared to be released back into the wild.
Legendary Thailand was next on the list with its stunning karst scenery, longtail boats and turquoise waters of the Andaman Sea. It was hard to leave. We studied maps and plotted back country routes where we found endless narrow roads that meandered through small villages with locals
going about their daily life including a logger on elephant back wandering down the road. The driving was magnificent through endless small villages, surrounded by jungle, stunning Wats (temples), and once we reached the Andaman Sea, classic karst scenery, we felt like explorers and judging by the locals’ reaction we did a good job of keeping off the busy tourist route.
We entered Myanmar and the “Road to Mandalay”. The very name conjures up images of wooden wheeled carts being pulled by Brahman cattle and steered by families wearing bamboo hats along a track that winds its way through endless rice fields, and that’s exactly the scene that greeted us we wound our way north.
Myanmar was an absolute revelation to us; it truly is one of those rarest of destinations left has not long been open to the rest of the world. It has an amazing culture but certainly is a little rough around the edges. The travelling is both good and bad, the sights are simply otherworldly, and the people are not yet traumatised by mass tourism and all the negatives effects it can have.
Heading north we crossed the mighty Mekong and into the most bombed country in human history, Laos. A brief stop at the leafy laid-back capital of Vientiane, then it was on to stunning Vang Vieng.
Vang Vieng sits on the banks of the Namsang River and is overshadowed by towering limestone cliffs that rise vertically from the brilliant green landscape of rice paddies and banana trees below; it is a scene straight from a traditional Chinese silk painting, we were awestruck. The halfway point also happened to be the point where we entered China. To be honest I had some reservations about the riding in China, how could it possibly be any good with 1.4 billion people, I envisaged traffic Armageddon but that could not have been further from reality.
We quickly found some stunning narrow backroads that wound their way through ancient tea tree plantations along an equally ancient
route known as the Tea Horse Route, as important as the Silk Road but virtually unknown. We found ourselves driving though a narrow fissure of rock known as Tiger Leaping Gorge, China’s deepest gorge, and an utterly breathtaking sight. We entered Tibet and drove an unbelievable fairy-tale landscape of snow-capped peaks, narrow canyonlands dissected by a raging torrent far-far below, pine forests, impossibly scenic monasteries located on a knife edge ridge and a landscape dotted with Tibetan farmhouses. The road itself was an endless series of twisties that ascended and descended over 5000mt plus passes for days on end.
A line from our on the road blog went like this, “Its official I have run out of superlatives; the drive from Zogang to Ranwo was quite possibly the most outstanding drive / ride of my life, and I don’t say that lightly. I could go on and on, it was simply awe-inspiring, life affirming, uplifting stuff, it slaps you in the face and shouts “this is living”. So much for traffic Armageddon.
Definitely one of the highlights was sunset over Mt Everest. The clouds dispersed to reveal this mighty mountain as Sarah and I sat in awe watching the sun set over a distant horizon reflecting off Everest, it was breathtaking for other reasons beside the altitude. Another highlight of Tibet was an impromptu visit to a group of nomadic families settled by a crisp clear mountain stream in a high-altitude valley. We were invited inside one of their tents, presented with Yak cheese, tasty homemade bread, yak butter and yak tea, all of which was delicious and we learnt a lot about their way of life. We knew we were on the road less travelled as these people had never had foreigners in their camp before and one thought our right-hand drive vehicle had indeed transported the Dalai Lama as that was the only other right-hand drive car he had ever seen!
Descending the Tibetan Plateau, we visited one of the world’s greatest archaeological discoveries, the Terracotta Warriors. It truly is a
marvellous sight to be gazing over 1000s of warriors tasked with standing guard over Emperor Qin for eternity, from 2000 years ago.
China kept surprising us, no more so than the truly amazing small village of Guoliangcun that stood atop a plateau isolated from the outside world for centuries. The only access was via a death-defying access ladder that clung to a sheer 300m rockface. In 1972 it was decided to build a tunnel to gain access to the outside world. The result is absolutely breathtaking and offers, surely, some of the finest scenery we saw on the entire ride.
On a Sunday afternoon, after 80 days and 20,000ks, we drove into Beijing after descending from over 150ks of twisties, at last we saw some of the 1.4 billion people of China, but only 40k out of Beijing. We had successfully managed to find an extraordinary network of tiny back roads through ancient villages and had many roads virtually to ourselves, far from the traffic misery I had anticipated.
“I think it would be fair to say that on no other ride do we witness such a diversity of landscapes, peoples, foods & cultures as we did on the Asian Overland , it is truly a remarkable part of the world from the surprise destination that was Malaysia, the steamy jungles, karst scenery and tropical beaches of Thailand, hidden Myanmar and it’s amazing culture and more amazing antiquities, mighty rivers and epic scenery of Laos to the very roof of the world then our descent through ancient hidden China, what a trip it has been!”
If you are keen to join us for an experience of a lifetime and ride from Singapore to Beijing, you may just be in luck. At time of writing there were still three rider places available on the inaugural Asian Overland Expedition departing in February 2020, but you had better be quick if you want to secure a place.
Visit www.compassexpeditions.com/ tours/asian-overland for more information.
You can read Mick and Sarah’s full reports at: http://www. compassexpeditions.com/blog/ . D
YOU MUST REMEMBER THIS
WoRdS/pHoToS THE BEAR
If YoU PerUse THIs magazine from front to back, you will have read about my inappropriate packing for my most recent European trip. In brief, it was hot and I had my cold/cool weather gear packed. I suffered, and I deserved to suffer. The basic problem was that I had checked the climate, but not the weather. Normally this is a good procedure. In case of a lingering heatwave, not so much.
This trip will be different. This time I’ll think ahead – properly.
The silly thing on that last trip was that I could have taken two full sets of riding gear if I’d wanted to. Edelweiss Bike Tours has a van that carries your
luggage; they also have panniers and top boxes on most bikes, but you don’t really need to use them. The van driver leaves your bag in your room every evening, so you can take pretty much anything you might want and it will be there for you.
“Lay out the Smoking, my man…” The Germans call a dinner suit a Smoking, but then they also call a station wagon a Touring.
It’s going to be different this time, and not only because I will not have anyone to lay out my Smoking while I’m exploring the Canadian Rockies. I’m by myself and riding one of MotoQuest’s Suzuki V-Strom 650s, and although it will have MotoQuest’s excellent Pelican bags, that’s all the luggage I will be carrying. Well, except for my camera gear, strapped onto the rack. So it’s not just a matter of
packing everything I just might need. There won’t be room.
First of all, then, I need to figure out what I will need. It’s simple, really.
When I’m riding, I want to be warm when it’s cold, cool when it’s hot and dry when it’s wet. I also want crash protection, and I don’t want to carry a lot of extra stuff.
Let’s take those requirements in reverse order. Why? Oh, I don’t know. Come on, live a little.
Dry when it’s wet – I’ll take my
My ride with the least luggage ever was the 2500 mile trip on the Honda Fury. I had an Andy Strapz AA bag plus the extension bag. It was a struggle to smell acceptable, let me tell you.That little white bottle is sunscreen. I didn’t have room for it in the bag.
French-made Ixon Soho Urban jacket which is remarkably if not absolutely waterproof. It did let some water through once when I was inundated by the bow wave of a truck on a drowned road in Belgium – the French and the Belgians never did get on – but it’s held up to rain very well. It also has good back, shoulder and elbow protectors.
We usually get our riding gear from the distributor for testing –this jacket was out of stock but I wanted it so much that I actually found it in a shop and paid for it myself. True love.
I do not want to carry extra wet weather gear, so I need something rainproof for the nether regions that I can also wear when it is dry, and that offers crash protection.
Fortunately, our good friends at Draggin Jeans have just what I want.
The pants are called Oilskins, and they are both waterproof and smartlooking so you can wear them any time. A slight boot cut means that it’s no problem wearing them over your boots so the latter don’t fill with rain water. They also have quality protectors for knees and hips.
As for being cool when it’s hot, both the jacket and the pants breathe. This would not help much if I was riding in serious heat, such as the recent 39 degrees in Hungary or the 45 degrees I’ve copped in Abu Dhabi, but I do not expect that level of heat in Canada’s Rockies.
Yeah, I know.
And as for being warm when it’s cold, the jacket has a quilted insert which is nice and snug and which can also be worn as a separate jacket when wandering around after the ride is done for the day. Bonus. I’ll carry a pair of long Kathmandu underpants to take the chill off my legs under the Oilskins if it gets really cold.
Even the smallest panniers are adequate when you have a van carrying the rest of your luggage!
See what I’ve done here? Among the gear to keep me comfortable, the only things I need to pack while I’m riding could be the quilted jacket, which scrunches down nice and small, and a pair of long undies. I could carry those in my pocket if I had to.
This leaves more than adequate room for another pair of pants, a shirt and some T-shirts, a few changes of undies and the other small stuff you need on the road, like a couple of adapter plugs and cables, my Kindle and iPad, torch, wet pack (with medication) and… not much else, really. Oh, a bottle of Cold Medicine. The cameras and their bits and pieces reside in a shoulder bag which fits perfectly into my medium-sized SW-Motech tail bag (which doubles as my airline carry-on bag), allowing a bit of extra room for spare gloves, notebook and pen. What could go wrong
an errant moose, I suppose. A Canuck friend of mine once told me, “Moose are just like sheep. Their singular is the same as their plural and they are both stupid. Otherwise they are completely different. Remember this.” D
I had somewhat more room to pack when I rode around Croatia on an Aprilia Pegaso. Even so, I wasn’t carrying a mine detector, which would have been handy.
USED&ABUSED
THE STUFF OF LEGENDS
MACNA TRACK R GLOVES
PRICE - $299.95
Available in racing red (which is more a fluro red or orange), white and black colour combination, they certainly do standout from the crowd.
The Macna Track R is available from all good motorcycle retail outlets in sizes S to XXL. For more information regarding the Track R see www.macnaridinggear.com.au or contact your local Macna stockist. SW
WINTER WEAR
MACNA SEKTOR JACKET PRICE - $299.95
AS I’VE MENTIONED before I’m big on protecting my hands while riding a motorcycle. Having seen too often what happens to hands when someone wasn’t wearing gloves is not something I wish for anyone to go through and riding on a race track where speeds tend to be a lot higher than the street the grinding of flesh and bone is greater. I was in need of some new track gloves and Macna (that same week) released their awesome new Track R gloves.
I had also witnessed Legend Troy Bayliss crash into turn one at Phillip Island, one of the highest speed places to crash, and the resulting aftermath his gear took sliding down the road. I was amazed at how well his Track R stood up to such a high speed slide. Most other gloves would result in damage hands, but not the Track R –so I was hooked from the outset!
Macna sent me a pair in the same
colour (the only colour available at the moment) as Troy’s and fitment was bang on and correct to my usual size from the first time I pulled them on –firm but flexible to mould to my hands perfectly after a few wears.
The Track R is constructed from the finest kangaroo, cow and goat leather available today, with a combined DuPont Kevlar and Bemberg comfort liner. Fingers, knuckles and palms are protected by R.I.S.C. Polyurethane injection moulded external protective parts, with the palm and side areas enjoying the additional protection of double layer leather and a double Velcro closure system the more forward closure being a 30-degree Velcro pull, which to me is far more comfortable than a traditional closure and feels more secure.
One of the most commonly injured parts of the hand are the little fingers and Macna has joined the glove’s little finger to the ring finger for additional strength and protection in the event of a crash.
The other most important part of any glove like the Track R is feel. Being able to feel the controls like you’re wearing nothing is the key and Macna has nailed it. I dare say these are the best racing styled glove I’ve ever worn – they really are that good!
Seeing we’re on the subject of Macna, I thought I’d give a little update on a jacket I’ve been wearing over a year now. It’s the Sektor from Macna which is my ‘go to’ winter jacket. I find the Sektor extremely comfortable and especially warm for the colder riding days and if it gets a little warm there’s vents to let some air flow through.
The Sektor features a 3-layer system with detachable Raintex breathable waterproof membrane and thermo liner and has been 101% waterproof. Also, after many months of abuse (or, call it daily riding over a number of months) it has held up perfectly. If I gave it a wash you’d dare say it was still brand new. Well done, Macna. For more information on the range of Macna jackets see www.macna ridinggear. com.au or contact your local Macna stockist.
SW D
FREECOM 1+ is the world’s most advanced Bluetooth communication system whether you are riding alone or with a passenger.
WHATSAYYOU
WE
LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU, the letters are among the most keenly read parts of the magazine. Please try and keep letters down to no more than 300 words. Then you can read many, not just a couple. We do reserve the right to cut them and, unless you identify yourself and at least your town or suburb and state, we will print your email address instead. Please address letters to contactus@ausmotorcyclist.com.au or Australian Motorcyclist Magazine, Suite 4b, Level 1, 11-13 Orion Rd, Lane Cove West NSW 2066. All opinions published here are those of the writers and we do not vouch for their accuracy or even their sanity.
LETTER OF THE MONTH
Ireckon Tim is a worthy winner of this month’s Nelson Rigg backpack and T-shirt. The number of books I reckon The Bear will pile up for him, he’ll certainly be needing a new backpack to carry them around! Well done, mate and enjoy the read once The Bear compiles the list. SW
HE NEEDS IT!
Hi Stuart & The Bear, I have been a fan of Australian
FOOLS
Hi Stuart,
I agree that people should keep left but here in Tasmania if the speed limit is 80Ks or less you DO NOT have to keep left this is plain stupid. All the best, Keith
Motorcyclist Magazine for some time now and look forward to each edition. It truly is at the pinnacle of motorcycling relevance in this country, in regards to news, views, opinions and honest reviews of the latest bikes available, however, I digress.
The reason I am writing is to ask a simple question - is The Bear able to recommend further, excellent reading, along the lines of “Around AUSTRALIA the hard way in 1929”?
I found this excellent book amongst quite a modest number of novels, books and so forth, upon my own bookshelf this week and
Hi Keith,
Yep, that is a road rule that is common Aus wide. But in faster zones it is a real pain! Cheers, Stuart.
BOOF HEADS
Stuart,
Your gripe about (ignorant!) people
immediately realised that I had owned it for some years, but had never actually read it. Wow.
I got into it the same evening and within a couple of nights (and accompanied by a few glasses of Shiraz), I have finished a truly fantastic story of early circumnavigation of our wonderful country by motorcycle - in the most rudimentary mannerby 2 true legends of the time & beyond.
As The Bear wrote the foreword to this exceptional recount of the travels of Jack Bowers & Frank Smith, on a ‘29 Harley Davidson with a sidecar (of sorts), I am keen to know if there are similar books which -in his opinion, would be worthwhile reading?
For those unfamiliar with this particular story, do yourself a favour and get a copy, I thoroughly recommend it.
Best regards, Tim Storck
Toowoomba, QLD
Hi Tim,
The Bear (when he’s in the country) is still busily working on a great list of reading material for you. Cheers, Stuart.
hogging the right lane is right. This is a huge annoyance to anybody who is prepared to push the speed limit boundaries just a bit. But the biggest annoyance about these ignorant boof heads is they often sit just below the posted speed limit. I am fi nding more and trucks now
driving in the RH lane of roads that have 2 or more lanes, AND, quite often now P plate drivers doing the same? Here’s a statement, 99% of car drivers cannot drive, they are pointers, that is, they point the car in the general direction and “hope” it goes there!
As a rider, the issues can be bypassed quite quickly, particularly with the advent of legal lane splitting. There should be laws to book these ignorant arrogant knuckleheads!
Mark
Hi Mark,
Agree totally. Too many people focused on their phones no doubt. Cheers, Stuart.
LUST
Hi Stuart,
The motorcycle I had posters on the wall of and desired to own if money was no object as a young bloke was a Bimoto Tesi. I would too have liked to have ridden the two stroke RZ 350 Yamaha too. These days I think the one I am keeping a close eye on and maybe will own some time is a Ducati Scrambler Icon the yellow one. They are simple and a little raw and not completely practical for the riding I do these days but why not. Funny next is
little impractical and I am not sure I have enough time to keep it clean but I would enjoy the conversations with strangers that would come with it.
See what happens
Peter Hopper Bear Army No 10
Hi Peter, Great bikes. I am actually thinking of getting an RZ350 once I fi nish and sell the Z900. Cheers, Stuart.
LUSTING TOO
Stuart,
The bike I am lusting after is also one of your picks. It’s the new MV Superveloce. In a sea of bland, which seems to be what most bikes are nowadays the Superveloce really pulls at the heart strings of a bike with a lot of character. Now I just need to convince the wife I should have one in the garage, or maybe the loungeroom? Okay, maybe that’s pushing it a bit far.
Cheers, Brad .
Hi Brad, Hahahaha! Tell your wife to get rid of the tele and replace it with the bike! Maybe you should pre-purchase a kennel for the backyard? LOL! Cheers, Stuart.
Classic Chrome. Again a
FUNNY BASTARD
Hi Stuart,
I saw the pic of you hitting the cone in the Metzeler review. Was this on purpose or did you stuff up? I kind of reckon you were mucking around – you funny bastard. Regards, Simon.
Hi Simon, You got me, yes I was mucking around to give everyone a laugh. The temperature felt like minus one thousand so a few laughs to warm up the blood were called for. LOL! Cheers, Stuart.
SEGALE
Gents,
I was quite interested in the Segale article Picko wrote. I remember seeing these things race in Europe many years ago and would love to see one in the flesh again in the future. Can you tell Picko to give us regular updates when he gets one
on the bench.
Thanks, John Jackson
ORGANISED
Hi Team,
Just wanted to say thanks for the article on organised tours in the last issue. I have been on quite a few organised tours around the globe and found most operators excellent. I am also now looking at some of the small, boutique styled operators as I’ve done the ones with the big companies but looking for that something special and think the smaller operators could offer that. Keep up the great work gents. Regards, Samuel
Samuel, two that come to mind immediately are Beach’s in the US (they do mainly European tours) and our own World on Wheels (who do tours, you guessed, worldwide). – Cheers, The Bear
GUZZI ME
Hey Stu, I just read your story on the
V85TT and I’m wondering about the non-floating diff (unlike the CARC of my 1200 Sport) because it’s fixed like all the earlier Guzzi’s which made the rear suspension rise and fall with the on/off of the throttle... no-one has mentioned anything about it so I’m just wondering is it not an issue... the reason I ask is I was in Rick Gill’s yesterday and saw the new V85TT, sat on it and was impressed just how light it felt just lifting it off the sidestand. Rick has offered me a test ride so I’m going to try it for myself. Take care, sincerely, Morry
Hi mate, Yeah, didn’t feel any issues like you mention. It is a cracking good bike, I highly recommend you ride one. Let me know what you think after your ride. Cheers, Stuart. D
K 1600 B
F 750 GS
F 750 GS Tour
F 750 GS Low Susp
F 750 GS Tour LS
F
F 850 GS Tour Low Susp
F 850 GSA
R 1250 GS
R 1250 GS Rallye
R 1250 GS Rallye X
R 1250 GS Exclusive
R 1250 GS Spezial
R 1250 GSA
R 1250 GSA Rallye
R 1250 GSA Rallye X
R 1250 GSA Exclusive
R 1250 GSA Spezial
ScooteR
C 650 Sport
C 650 GT
CAN-AM (BRP) www.brp.com
$13,590
$17,305
$13,840
$17,005
$21,805
$18,240
$18,640
$21,505
$TBA
$23,490
$24,940
$29,890
$28,140
$31,390
$25,490
$26,390
$31,590
$30,790
$30,540
$14,150
$14,990
Spyder F3 $TBA
Spyder F3-S
Spyder F3-T
Spyder F3 Limited
Spyder RT $TBA
Spyder RT Limited $TBA
CF MOTO
www.cf-moto.com.au
DUCATI
www.ducati.com.au
*All Ducati prices are ride away
Road
Scrambler Sixty2
Scrambler Icon
Scrambler Full Throttle
HONDA
HUSQVARNA
V-Strom
SWM
www.swmmotorcycles.com.au
TRIUMPH
www.triumphmotorcycles.com.au *Some Triumph prices are ride away
Street Triple S
Street Triple R
Bonneville Street Twin
Bonne Bobber Black
Bonneville T120
Bonneville T120 Black
Rocket Roadster
Rocket Touring
adv TouRing
Scrambler 1200 XE
Scrambler 1200 XC
Tiger 800 XRx/L
Tiger 800 XRt
BEARFACED
FYOU BEAUTY!
ORGIVE ME, FOR I am about to sin. This is a motorcycle magazine, I know, and I am not a car bloke, either. But on my recent tour around a superheated Eastern Europe (read the whole sweaty story elsewhere in this issue) I saw something so beautiful, and at the same time so nostalgia-inducing, that I can’t help writing about it.
When I was a lad and velociraptors roamed the plains of northern Europe, I collected toy cars just like every other boy I knew. Well, except for Helmut, who collected toy tanks and became, I believe, a three star general with NATO. In charge of the armored corps, if I’m not wrong. My favourite toy car was a MercedesBenz 190SL with wheels
that turned, doors that opened and a little shelf for speeding fines. I couldn’t stretch to the 300SL, although I would have loved to. It had that wonderful huge, spidery steering wheel and pedals that moved, and it was beautiful. Then, the other day, my tour group pulled into a mountainside bike stop for coffee. And parked right there among the bikes was a MercedesBenz 300SL, gullwing doors and all.
After admiring it from all sides I began boring my fellow riders with little snippets like the need for gullwing doors because the car’s frame didn’t allow ordinary doors to be fitted, and that Werner von Braun used to own one, and… nobody was interested, of course. I have been known to say that I thought the Bugatti Atlantic was the most beautiful car ever built, but dear oh dear. Wash my mouth out with brake fluid. The shape of the 300SL is so sinuous, so ultimately… right that it is simply impossible to imagine any improvement. This is beauty itself on wheels, a mobile Venus of Samothrace, a… car beyond all others.
Oddly, because it began life as a race car there is no particular credit for its designer. Its shape just evolved, out on the racetrack, until it took this sublime form.
Now the question
arises how this relates to motorcycles.
The answer is very simple, and it is a question. Is there a motorcycle that is so quintessentially a motorcycle that we could compare it to the 300SL? Not just a bike that is beautiful, but one that suits its purpose so completely and without compromise?
Send your suggestions to me at thebear@ausmotorcyclist.com.au and include a picture of the bike. Do it now; back in your ideals and preferences! I look forward to hearing from you.
(My apology for the photos; the car was crowded in by bikes. There are far better photos online!) D
IBORIS
WHITHER, HARLEYDAVIDSON?
am a long-standing, cardcarrying lover of HarleyDavidson. I have owned and ridden its bikes hundreds of thousands of kilometres, in an outlaw club no less, since before the marque became something dentists took their wives out on Sundays with.
I defend the brand against the haters, and would happily park one in my garage tomorrow. The new FXDR is the best thing Milwaukee has ever built.
So I’m seriously starting to wonder just what Milwaukee plans to do about its seemingly irrevocable sales-slide. And it’s not just happening in Australia, where Harley has posted its eighth (or is it ninth?) consecutive quarter of losses. This is happening in the Motherland. The share price is down, manufacturing facilities are being closed, the level of company debt is being questioned in the media, and I can only imagine what the board meetings must be like.
So how did it get to where it is? How did the undeniably coolest brand in the world, an icon – a brand people tattooed on their bodies FFS! suddenly start heading south?
Well, it wasn’t sudden. These things never are. And I believe it all started with the Harley Owners Group (HOG). That was the beginning of the downturn we’re now seeing.
At its peak, the HOG was a marketing department’s wet-dream. Cashed-up boomers aching for a bit of outlaw glamour – because let’s not forget, Harley would not have sold a lot of bikes if Hells Angels didn’t ride them – would be gloriously feted by the factory at regular and very controlled events. They were a captive audience, just as keen to accessorise their new hog as they were to play dress-up and have parades. And they regularly bought new Harleys. And
if you weren’t in the HOG, you were automatically given membership when you bought a new Harley. The cash registers were in overdrive. Life was good at Milwaukee HQ.
Surely H-D did not actually believe this would last forever?
Well, it sure acted like it did.
It kept producing bikes that spoke only to its traditional customer base – which was now essentially all the HOG, and totally ignored the changing world – which was changing faster than anyone could have imagined.
The bike market started to slow down. Harley was not alone in feeling the pinch, but it got pinched the hardest because all of its eggs were in one aging basket – the HOG.
The slow down, at least in Australia, was and is due to a few factors which combined to produce a perfectly nasty storm – stagnant wages growth, the massive safety brainwashing campaign, the feminisation of society, the expense and difficulty in getting a motorcycle licence (and the length of time spent on Ls and Ps) – and in Harley’s case you could add the aging of its traditional buyer group and the demonisation and subsequent virtual disappearnce of outlaw motorcycle clubs from public view.
Suddenly, Harley’s greatest unuttered nightmare was made real.
Those dowdy old fuddy-duddies of the HOG were now the poster boys for Harley.
No longer was it the hard-bitten, relatively youthful, tattooed one percenter with the baking-hot girlfriend glued to his patched back, belting down the road in a welter of thunder and attitude, what someone pictured when someone pictured “Harley-Davidson”. It was now an “old peoples’ bike”.
As one tradie told me after he fixed
my garage door and we got talking about bikes because he saw the ones in my garage, he would never buy a Harley or want to ride one because it was “An old man’s bike”. His father rode a Harley.
The outlaw image on which Harley carved its wonderous empire was over.
Milwaukee, of course realised this. Maybe too late, but it is what it is, and what to do now? Stop building its traditional performance-compromised cruisers to an ever-aging demographic now on its last legs?
It quickly rushed a small-capacity Indian-built 500 to market. It sold spectacularly well. And then it didn’t –because it really wasn’t very good.
In Australia, it adopted a marketing scatter-gun approach – it started targeting hipsters – which are nothing other than a tiresome fashion statement and not people who buy new bikes. It produced computer mock-up of future builds – adventure bikes and streetfighters. But people cannot buy CGIs. It promised to build a slew of all-new motorcycles in the next five years.
It then hauled out its electric Livewire and took care to only invite the press which either depended upon it for advertising, or was venal enough to provide the gushing copy Milwaukee expected.
The Livewire itself? Well, I rode it four years ago in Malaysia, and I’m not convinced a $40,000+ whizzing blancmange that won’t do anywhere near 200km on a charge is what’s going to save its arse. No-one is.
People don’t yet want electric bikes. Only legislators want electric bikes. So what now? How does Harley get out of the corner it has painted itself into? How does it recapture its cool? Is it too big to fail?
Ain’t no such thing. D
Now is the time to save $1,500* on the MY18 Speedmaster and Bobber during Triumph’s EOFY model runout. Beautiful, authentic and capable. Whether it’s the laid back riding style of the Bonneville Speedmaster or the thrilling custom classic silhouette of the Bobber, both machines are powered by the Bonneville 1200cc High Torque engine. Both models also feature Road and Rain riding modes, switchable traction control, torque-assist clutch, ABS and an immobiliser. See your Triumph Dealer today for a test ride before they’re all gone. Visit our website at www.triumphmotorcycles.com.au/o ers for more info. T&C’s apply.
Your adventure. Our policy.
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QBE Motorcycle Insurance policies aren’t just packed with benefits, they are highly competitive. Call our specialist team on 1800 24 34 64 and ask for a ‘Price Beat Guarantee’ quote today, or visit qbe.com/au
AMM SEPTEMBER 2019
SF: GLOVES / DUCATI HYPERMOTARD & MONSTER / EASTERN EUROPE / POTM: OVERLAND HOTEL / MAP: QLD / TRAVEL
